Escape From Necross
by The Oracle
Summary: The sequel to Like A Vixen Scorned. Xerxes has returned from the dead, and he has some new weapons at his disposal against Krystal's new group, as well as a surprising hostage. Rated T for violence, and some strong language.
1. Chapter 1

This is my sequel to "like a Vixen Scorned." It uses characters from Starfox, and enemies inspired by the Cybermen in the New Doctor Who series, just like my previous story. I do not own the rights to any of these characters, and do not intend to make any money from this story.

Enjoy.

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Fox sped along by himself in his Arwing, thinking to himself. It had been a few weeks since he and Krystal had their last get-together on a star base, slowly patching things up together. Everything had all been going quite well since then. Well enough that Fox was nervously considering where the relationship could go from here. This was why he was out flying right now, to clear his head.

His thoughts about their relationship were cut short, however, when he noticed something a bit odd on his scanner. He furrowed his brow as it appeared for a second as a blip, and then disappeared.

Luckily, The Great Fox, though far off, was still in range with his communicator.

"Fox to Peppy…You there, Peppy?"

A familiar voice popped up on the communicator. "Peppy here. What have you got for me, Fox?"

"Well I'm not sure…" Fox sat back in his seat some. "The strangest thing popped up on my scanner a few seconds ago, and then just disappeared."

Peppy thought to himself. "Hmmmm…where did you see this thing? Do you remember?"

Fox tried to pinpoint where he found the blip, and circled his finger around a certain planet near him. "I think it was on Necross."

For a moment, there was silence on the communicator. "Now that's just strange." Peppy tilted his head on the other side. "That place is a rock. You shouldn't be getting any readings there. I mean, even Krystal and her 'Blue Specter' squad swept through that area a while back, and they couldn't find anything there."

Fox sighed and sat up in his seat once more. "This is too unusual to ignore. I'm gonna head over to Necross and make a quick run-through, to make sure my scanner wasn't just acting up."

"All right, Fox. Be careful." Peppy answered, before signing off.

Fox nodded silently, as he pointed his Arwing straight towards the dead planet. He looked to his right, and to his left, checking his scanners every so often as he came into orbit with Necross, checking the surface.

For many minutes, he saw nothing, checking everything very carefully, before deciding that was indeed a simple error that had occurred with his scanner.

But just as he was about to leave the dead looking planet, another blip came up on his scanner, this one staying around for much longer.

"What the hell…there it is again." Fox furrowed his brow as he leaned in for a closer look at the image, then back down at the planet's surface. "Looks like…something's opening up from underground…"

Before he could make any other observations, however, something suddenly shot up from this opening and grabbed a hold of Fox's ship. It was a tractor beam, very similar to the one that had ensnared Krystal and Fang in the Mondas encounter.

"Emergency! Emergency!" Fox shouted into his communicator. "My ship seems to be caught in some kind of energy field! Possibly a tractor beam! " He struggled with his controls. "I can't steer the ship, and the beam seems to have frozen my ejector functions! I can't escape! Repeat I can't escape!"

He shouted and shouted, hoping his cry for help would reach for someone, as the beam quickly retracted, swallowing Fox down into the hole in the ground as it slowly closed itself up afterward.

Once again, all was silent on Necross.

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Things were also mostly quiet on the heavily forested, and un-colonized planet known as Joppa. The only thing that disturbed the peace was the three Arwings that had recently landed in a clearing.

Krystal walked in the lead slowly, Fang and Topaz flanking her left and right.

"Are you sure there are Cybers hiding out here?" Fang asked as he held his blaster close, alert at all times. "This place looks pretty placid, compared to the other un-colonized planets that the Cybers tried to take over."

"I'm positive my scanners picked something up, Fang." Krystal spoke as she held her trusty staff in right hand, off to her side, as her left gripped a pistol. "Even if it's not a Cyber ship, it's obviously something that doesn't belong on this planet, and therefore should be looked into."

"Lead the way, Sis…" Topaz spoke gently, her staff at the ready as she walked; referring to Krystal by the new nickname she gave her. "I've got your back."

The trio went on into the woods nearby slowly, each member looking all around as little woodland creatures would scatter along in their path, the sky above them slowly darkening as night was falling over the planet.

They all walked along, for what they felt like was going to be an eternity, before Topaz suddenly sensed something coming at them.

"Get down!" She suddenly screamed, Krystal and Fang scattering with her as a laser blast came out from nowhere and nearly hit them. Fang growled as he turned from a tree he was hiding behind, with his back against the wood, returning fire as Krystal came up quickly from some bushes she had ducked under, joining in this barrage with Topaz, who was behind another tree.

More blasts came from the opposite side, as the three all turned and ducked to avoid them.

"Krystal!" Topaz yelled. "Those laser blasts are different from the ones I know. Whoever's firing at us, it's not a Cyber!"

"Well good!" Fang shouted as he fired back. "I was getting tired of thinking that only machines hated us!"

Krystal ignored Fang's comment as she fired a few more times, then yelled out into the distance. "Why are you firing at us?…Who the hell are you?"

The moment after she yelled this, the firing suddenly stopped. Fang and Topaz slowly stepped out of their hiding places to join Krystal's side. Out of the smoke, a familiar figure in a blue and white uniform stepped out of the smoke from the laser blasts…the figure of Panther Caroso.

"You!" Krystal exclaimed upon seeing him.

"Well, well, well…" Panther smiled to himself. "Fancy seeing you around here, love…Did you miss me?"

"Wait a minute…" Fang readied his blaster once again. "I heard about you guys in the Academy. You're a member of that 'Star Wolf' team, right? The one that's wanted all across the galaxy?"

Panther chuckled. "They've taught you well, school boy…" he smiled to Krystal after addressing Fang. "But I'm afraid I'll have to pat you on the head, and give you a sticker later. Right now, I've got some catching up to do with Krystal."

Topaz furrowed her brow as Fang just scowled at him. The blonde vixen looked to Krystal. "Is this the same Panther fellow that you told me about before. The one who got all flirty with you during your early days with Starfox?"

"Yes…" Krystal sighed. "The same guy, I'm afraid. And when he's around, that means his buddies, Wolf and Leon, can't be too far off." She looked over to Panther. "So why don't you a good boy, and tell me where they are."

Panther smiled as he completely ducked the question. And slowly began to remove his jacket. "You know, I heard through the grapevine that your hand-to-hand combat skills have come along as nicely as your piloting skills." He threw his jacket off, as he was now dressed down to his pants and a white tanktop, showing off his muscles. "Why don't you show me some of what you've learned?" He got into a fighting stance.

Krystal sighed and shook her head. "Look, we don't have time for this…tell us where your friends are!"

"Uh-uh-uh…" Panther waved a finger at her. "I won't play by your rules, if you won't play by mine." He danced a bit in his fighting stance.

"Fine." Krystal growled. She didn't even bother to bring her staff to this fight, shoving it down into the ground next to her.

"You want some help?" Fang inquired.

"No." Krystal shook her head. "It would mean a lot to me if you both would just let me settle this by myself."

Fang nodded slowly as Topaz grinned gently. "Go get him, sis!"

Krystal nodded as she slowly walked over to where Panther was standing, waiting in his stance.

"Ready when you are, love…"

Krystal immediately lunged at him with roundhouse kick with her right foot, only to have him duck it quickly. She came back around and went for him with a straight punch, using her right fist as he caught it in his right hand, catching her left hand as she tried to punch with that one as well.

"Ha!" Panther laughed. "Surprise love! I've studied all of your moves!"

Krystal just shook her head and growled. "You really are a sick bastard."

She then suddenly pulled herself right in front of him, and nailed him with a head butt that smacked right into his left eye.

"Aaaarrrrgh!" Panther immediately let go as he stepped back and clutched at his left eye, rubbing it some as Krystal got into her own fighting stance. Panther slowly growled and came at her hard, swinging at her with his left fist, then his right, as Krystal ducked and weaved, waiting for him to throw his next left. When he did so, she grabbed a hold of his wrist, quickly spinning slightly to his left side, swinging up her left foot, and bringing it down over the back of his head in a kick, as she spun again, letting go of his wrist as the force of the kick brought him down onto his front side.

Krystal stepped back in her fighting stance as Panther groaned and got back up, ready to defend himself as she came at him with spinning kick, her left foot going for his stomach as he blocked as best he could, blocking again as she followed it up with a roundhouse kick with her right foot aimed at his face. He saw an opening as she went for another kick, and grabbed a hold of her foot in mid-air, using this advantage to go in as he punched her hard in the stomach.

Krystal grunted as Panther grabbed her shoulder with his other hand now, and threw her off to the side. Fang and Topaz were concerned, but obeyed Krystal's wishes, as she moaned and rolled up onto her hands and knees. Panther ran over before she could get up, and kicked her hard right in the stomach.

Krystal gasped out loud as this happened, and groaned in pain, catching her breath as she clutched her stomach.

"You like to play rough, love?" Panther smirked. "A little free advice…Be sure you know who you're playing with first."

He then ran in to make a grab for Krystal as she was starting to get back up. The Blue vixen responded by suddenly rolling forward, and bringing up her strong legs, standing on her hands as she wrapped them around his head. Panther grunted in surprise, and tried to throw Krystal off. She then twisted her body to the left, falling and taking Panther down with her. She then quickly sat up, and let him have it with a punch in the nose, rolling off of him and getting onto her feet.

Panther got back onto his feet as well, rubbing his nose, and discovering it was now bleeding.

"You seem like a tough guy." Krystal smirked as she stood at a distance from him. "I have to wonder though…what kind of a male spends all of his time playing with flowers?"

Panther breathed heavily upon hearing this, always hating to hear anyone mocking his fondness for the rose. He scowled, as a low growl came up from his chest, before he finally ran towards Krystal, his right hand cocked for a big punch.

Krystal was more than ready for this move, waiting for him to get just close enough, before suddenly dropping down into a split as he lunged with his right fist, bringing up her own right fist in her position, and nailing him hard in the crotch with it.

Panther just froze at that point, shaking and whimpering from the sheer pain of the blow, as Krystal got up and stared him right in the eyes.

"It's about time someone put all that testosterone to rest." She smiled, before simply pushing him on the forehead, making him fall onto his back.

She then held out a pair of binders to Fang. "Here. Put these on him"

"Yes Ma'am." Fang grinned, taking them and putting Panther's arms behind his back, binding his wrists together as Topaz smiled and walked up next to her.

"Way to go, sis…Even when we fought on Mondas, I never saw you pull off moves like that."

Krystal giggled a bit. "Well, I've got my new training regimen with you to thank for all of that." She then looked down at the now captured Panther, groaning with his bloodied nose as Fang held him up on his knees.

"Panther Caroso…On behalf of Corneria, I place you under arrest. Your length of incarceration time depends on how much you wish to co-operate. So why don't you make things just a little easier on yourself, and tell me where your fellow 'Star Wolf' teammates are hiding."

Panther shook his head slowly. "I'm not telling you anything…you can go suck my-"

Before he could even finish, Topaz came up and gave him a hard backhand across the left side of his face. "No swearing in front of the ladies, please."

"All right…" Krystal lowered her gaze at Panther as he groaned. "If you want to continue to make things hard for yourself…Topaz, take him to your ship. We'll come back here later, but right now we need to turn him over to the proper authorities."

Topaz nodded as she took Panther off of Fang's hands, shoving him along to her ship, as Fang quickly followed, Krystal pulling her staff out of the ground as she looked around one last time, before taking off with her team and leaving Joppa.

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Deep in another part of Joppa, Wolf O'Donnell was asleep, lying in a hammock just outside of his Wolfen ship, resting comfortably, until the form of his chameleon ally gently walked out and touched him on the shoulder.

"Wolf…Wolf, wake up." Leon spoke softly.

Wolf grunted as he opened his good eye. "Leon, what have I told you about interrupting my sleep?"

Leon sighed. "But Wolf, It's Panther. It was his turn to do patrol tonight, you know."

"Oh what is it?" Wolf groaned. "Is he screwing around with the female wildlife here?"

"Wolf, I can't find him!" Leon exclaimed.

Wolf sat up a bit. "What do you mean, you can't find him?"

Leon sighed. "I just woke up a few minutes ago, I decided to check on him with the scanners, and I found no trace of his signal on the planet!"

"Well, where the hell did he go, then? Reiza?"

Wolf chuckled a bit before the silence of the Joppa night was interrupted by an odd sound…it sounded like…people marching…in very heavy, metal boots.

"They might know where." Leon nervously indicated behind Wolf. Wolf turned, and his eye widened at the sight…shiny metal people marching together through the woods, heading in their direction…Cybers.

"Oh my god…" Wolf softly exclaimed, having never seen Cybers up close, as he quickly got to his feet, loading up his blaster as Leon quickly followed suit, standing right next to each other as the Cybers slowly surrounded them on nearly all sides.

Wolf just watched, as the leader of this group of Cybers walked up to the two organics, only inches away from them both.

Wolf decided to start a conversation. "What can I do for you?"

The Cyber answered in its electronic monotone. "We are in need of your star craft."

"Why?" Leon asked, furrowing his brow.

The Cyber spoke again. "Aside from them being fine fighter ships, they also have no affiliation to any organized government, and are thus difficult to track. This makes them ideal for our mission."

"What's in it for us?" Wolf shot back.

"A chance to become part of the future, of Life 2.0." The Cyber responded. "The chance to be upgraded into the collective. You will become like us."

Wolf scowled a bit now. He had never been tamed in his entire life, and he was damned if he was going to let it happen now. "And if we refuse…"

Unflinching, the Cyber answered. "Then you are not compatible."

"And then what…" Leon growled, aiming his gun for the Cyber's head.

"You will be deleted…" The Cyber spoke, unafraid of the gun as he quickly knocked it out of Leon's hand with its right hand, then swiftly placing its left hand on his shoulder, sending a fatal electrical current through his body. Leon yowled out in pain as he fell to his knees, and then keeled over, dead.

"LEON!" Wolf screamed, before firing his gun at the Cyber, smashing its mouth in as it howled and sparked, falling over as the other Cybers held out their arms, firing a barrage of lasers at Wolf as he jumped and avoided all of them as best he could, making a run for it out into the woods.

He didn't get too far however, as something came out of the shadows and tripped him. He grunted as he fell onto his front in the dirt, dropping his gun, and turning to see a figure stepping out into the light his ships gave off…a very feminine figure.

The figure swung a metallic looking staff, as its form was exactly like that of a Cerinian vixen, her fur green with black hair on her head, its mouth neither smiling nor scowling. She looked organic, but there was something…unnatural about her eyes, which gave off a kind of strange glow. Wolf didn't know it, but she was a new model, an advanced prototype, which looked organic on the outside, but inside was as cyber as her companions, who had now stopped advancing upon seeing her.

Wolf got up slowly, confused. "K…Krystal?"

"You wish…" The vixen answered, as she ran towards Wolf, swinging her staff as he ducked, the force of her swing so hard that the tree she hit instead nearly fell over upon her staff smacking into it.

Urgently, Wolf ran in and tried to hit her with a flurry of lefts and rights, only to have the vixen duck and weave under them with perfect precision, before she suddenly spun around and held her staff along his neck from behind, letting him have it with a series of hard knees that went right into his back, each one more painful then the last. She then threw him aside, and ran in to kick him once in the right side, then kicked him in the left, and with incredible grace, jumped and spun, bringing her right foot over to smash him right across the face.

Wolf grunted and moaned as he crumbled right to the ground, seeing his gun near his grasp. He reached desperately with his right hand, but at the last second, the vixen's left foot came down hard across his wrist, nearly breaking it.

Wolf nearly howled out in pain as the vixen kneeled near him, blood seeping out of his nose, down around his mouth, as she gently gripped his shoulder with her right hand.

"Last chance." She spoke, her voice even sounding organic. "Will you join us?"

Defiant to the end, Wolf just looked right up at the vixen, and spit a few drops of blood into her face.

The vixen blinked a bit, then shrugged. "Suit yourself."

She then took her right hand, and sent the same fatal electrical current through Wolf's body, as his eyes went wide open, before he struggled with his breath, and slowly went limp. Wolf O'Donnell, one of Fox McCloud's most noted rivals, was now dead. Killed by something that was decidedly much worse than him.

The vixen then stood up and looked to the Cybers around her.

"The area is now secure. The rogue elements have been disposed of. It is time to prepare the ships."

"Affirmative" One Cyber nodded, as they began to work.

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Fox slowly came out of consciousness, as he found himself lying on a hard metal floor. He shook his head and rubbed it as he began to sit up, hearing the voice of a Cyber talking to someone.

"Diamondo's unit has successfully acquired the ships." The Cyber spoke.

"Good." The person behind the voice stated, before noticing Fox in the background.

"Ah…it seems our guest is finally waking up." The voice proclaimed, as Fox rubbed his eyes, jumping at what he saw. Cybers were standing around him, keeping watch, as he saw the figure of a Cerinian Fox on all of the computer screens in the room around him, dressed in a nice suit.

"Welcome to Necross, my friend." The Cerinian's image happily proclaimed.

"Who are you?" Fox shouted as he got to his feet quickly, finding himself without his weapons.

The figure on the screen laughed, his voice not distorted, his body having no traces of anything cybernetic. "What's the matter, Cornerian? Can't you recognize the creator and ruler of all Cybers when you see him?"

Fox's jaw dropped, as he stood in the middle of the room, unsure of what to say or do at this point…


	2. Fox in Distress

Fox looked all around him as he gazed back to the figure in the screens.

"Xerxes…" He shook his head in disbelief. "This can't be. Xerxes went down with the Messenger, I saw it."

Xerxes grinned, much more jovial sounding in his new incarnation. "Ah, but you didn't stick around to see what happened afterward. When my loyal Cybers located me, well, what was left of me, and took me back to the planet where my work first started."

Fox's eyes opened wide as he remembered what Krystal told him. "You mean…"

Xerxes nodded. "Yes. Standing before you right now are the very same Cybers who captured ships from Andross' fleet, and destroyed Cerinia after making several adjustments and enhancements to the weapons systems. Ever since they came back and destroyed those ships to avoid detection, they had been waiting for me patiently to return from Mondas and retrieve them for my grand plan." His smile faded. "Which of course was thwarted by your sweetheart, and her new allies, such as my turncoat daughter."

Fox frowned for a moment, and then scratched his head in confusion. "How come you look like that?" He motioned to Xerxes and his suit. "How were the Cybers able to regenerate you so well?"

"Regenerate?" Xerxes laughed, amused that Fox still didn't get it. "My boy, they didn't regenerate me. My body has been dead for quite some time now."

Fox just furrowed his brow as the image of Xerxes pointed to his head. "My brain…the Cybers found it wasn't completely dead when they retrieved me, so they simply pulled it out of my body, and hooked it into the computer system here. You're now looking at the smartest, most sophisticated, and not to mention best looking, computer system in the galaxy." He grinned and straightened out his suit a little.

Fox shook his head gently. "Let's cut right through the nonsense, Xerxes…What do you want with me?"

Xerxes looked to him and gave him a simple answer. "Bait, my boy…you're going to help me catch a vixen…I mean, You ARE rather fond of Krystal, aren't you, judging from your reaction that time when I told you she was dead…I think it's safe to say the feeling's mutual on her part, and she'll come rushing over to save you, once she's heard of your capture."

Fox scowled. "And what makes you think she isn't gonna succeed in rescuing me, and wiping you out in the process?"

Xerxes grinned. "Because, I have a brand new weapon waiting for Krystal, and her allies." He motioned to another screen, as the diagram of a steel skeleton came up, slowly covering itself in flesh and creating the figure of a female Cerinian .

Fox looked on in a horrified silence, as Xerxes rubbed his chin some with a smile. "You like her? I call her 'Diamondo'. She's an advanced model I cooked up, specially designed, non-decaying flesh over a metal endoskeleton, and a prototype for a possible new generation of Cybers, to back up my current generation. Most of the cells for her flesh were harvested from the remains of my old body, so she is literally my own flesh and blood."

Xerxes grinned as Fox was looking around for a possible escape route. The computerized Cerinian spoke again. "The hardest part was the brain, though. Now that people through the galaxy know who I am, I can't very well snatch a random person's brain without someone taking notice, so I had to construct a computerized brain from scratch, which I think has been working out quite well for my Diamando. My computerized operating hands are far more skilled than the ones in my flimsy mortal body were."

Fox tried to make a run for one of the doors, before a Cyber stepped out, and grabbed him by the arm.

"Do not leave the presence of the Creator." The Cyber warned, as Xerxes laughed a little more.

"Where do you think you're going?" Xerxes mused, watching Fox struggle in the arms of the Cyber. "Do you honestly think I'm going to let you break open my polished doors, and run out of here? I'm in control of every single aspect of this base now, so I say you are going to be staying here for quite some time…and just to make sure you don't try anything stupid…." He looked to the Cyber holding him. "Put him in stasis!"

"Enjoy your power trip while it lasts, Xerxes!" Fox shouted as the Cyber dragged him out. "Krystal's gonna come for me. With her friends! She's gonna save me, she's gonna take down that pet monster of yours, and then she'll take you out of commission, permanently!"

Xerxes slowly shook his head. "Don't hold your breath, boy." He watched from his screen as The Cyber dragged him along, the door closing behind them.

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"Krystal!" Peppy said aloud as the blue vixen stepped onto the bridge of the Great Fox, having just made a surprise visit to the ship in her Arwing, Fang and Topaz behind her.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence today?" He grinned, getting up from his seat.

Krystal smiled as she walked closer to the aging hare. "I've got a special delivery for you, Peppy. One that needs to be put into a holding cell as quickly as possible."

"Oh?" Peppy looked over Krystal's shoulder, seeing the figure in binders being pushed along by Topaz, grunting and falling to his knees weakly.

"Panther Caroso!" Peppy exclaimed, looking over at Krystal. "So you're the ones who found the surviving member of Star Wolf!"

Krystal gave him a confused look as Topaz spoke from behind her. "What do you mean, 'surviving member'?"

Peppy blinked a few times. "You…you didn't hear?"

Fang stepped forward. "Uh, no Peppy. We passed by a meteor shower on the way over here, so our comms weren't really receiving a lot of signals."

"I see…" Peppy nodded as he sighed. "Normally I'd consider this to be good news, but the circumstances are most distressing. You see, not long after you left Joppa, another Cornerian fleet passed by the planet, and picked up another strange set of signals, which they believed to be from Cybers. They set down on the planet, and while they didn't find any Cybers, they DID discover the bodies of Wolf O'Donnell, and Leon Powalski."

"No…" Panther shook his head as he was now restrained by Topaz again. "I don't believe you. It's all a trick to scare me into compliance. I'm not gonna buy it."

"I'm sorry, Panther." Peppy walked up to him, showing the pictures they took of Wolf and Leon's lifeless bodies. "I'm afraid this isn't just a cruel trick on our part."

Panther got a good look, as he then looked off to the side. "Ohhhhhhh damn…" he groaned in a mournful way.

Fang scratched his head. "But, what about this is concerning you so much?"

Peppy looked to Fang and the rest of the group. "We recently discovered that all three of Star Wolf's ships were stolen, most likely after Wolf and Leon were disposed of. We also found out that they were both killed in the same way, by a strong electrical current introduced through the shoulder."

Topaz almost gasped out loud as she realized what this meant. "That's one of the Cybers' preferred methods of 'deletion'."

Peppy nodded gently as Fang furrowed his brow. "But the Cybers have their own ships. What could they possibly want with Star Wolf's ships?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Krystal spoke. "Not only are they quality fighter craft, but they are also very hard for anyone to track. And we've destroyed a few more of their ships ever since they lost The Messenger. It's only natural they'd want re-enforcements, particularly strong ones."

Topaz changed the subject as she forced the bound Panther to his feet. "Where's your holding cell?"

Peppy looked over to Topaz and motioned off to the left. "Right over that way. I'll see that he's transferred to the nearest prison colony."

Topaz pushed the groaning Panther along as she grinned. "Hear that, buddy? You're going to be put away. No more female faces for you for…oh probably some time."

Panther just went along, too shocked about Wolf and Leon's deaths to even respond to Topaz's remarks, as Krystal and Fang stayed around to chat with Peppy.

Within moments, the surviving member of Star Wolf was inside of a holding cell, and Topaz was standing by herself in a hallway, thinking to herself. She looked down at her necklace, a small gold globe attached to a chain as she lifted the globe. She pushed a little button, making it click and open up, revealing a picture of her father and mother together, as a pretty little tune began to play on it.

The necklace had been a present from her father when she was young, years before the madness that inspired him to create the Cybers took over. She remembered those days fondly each time she heard the tune, as he'd spend so much time with her, playing with her, giving her hugs constantly, and tucking her in at night. Even as his disease was taking hold, he didn't let it dampen his spirits. It was only when he began to use his research in the field of cybernetics to replace his amputated body parts that he slowly began to lose himself in his work.

She stood there, listening to the tune, before she heard a voice call out.

"Nice necklace."

Topaz jumped a little, looking over and seeing a new person, a young male wolf standing in a uniform, his face smudged with grease.

"Uhhhh…thank you." Topaz blinked a bit. "Do I know you?"

The wolf chuckled as he ran a cloth over a wrench he was holding. "Oh, sorry…I'm Fulton. I was sent up here to assist in some repairs. I guess they think I'm pretty good at it, to have me working at this place."

Topaz smiled and nodded some, as Fulton thought to himself. "So, uhhhh…you're part of that team that hunts down those Cybers I've been hearing about, right? 'Blue Specter' I think its called?"

"Yes." She smiled a bit, addressing him politely. "I'm Topaz. Nice to meet you."

Fulton nodded with a smile, as a high pitched voice called to him from behind.

"Hey Fulton! Are you gonna help me with this stabilizer, or what?" Slippy shouted.

"Oh! Right!" Fulton gasped. "I'll be right over!"

He started to walk off as Topaz watched him. He seemed different from the other guys she had met since leaving Mondas. There was something kind, and unassuming about his nature, a nice breath of fresh air from all the other testosterone jugs she had come across, such as the one who was waiting to jump her in another corridor.

Falco, after many failed attempts to redeem himself in the eyes of his comrades, leapt at her with a yell, trying to get her into a chokehold of his own from behind, only to have Topaz grab a hold of his right arm with her right, and use his momentum to flip him over in front of her, onto his back.

Falco groaned from the impact on the metal floor, as Topaz sighed and shook her head.

"Falco…are you really that insecure about your masculinity?"

Falco just grunted and sat up, rubbing his back as Topaz walked off, Slippy trying to stifle a laugh as he watched on with Fulton.

"Wow…" Fulton mused as he watched Falco walk away. "I'm glad she didn't do that to me."

"I was surprised too." Slippy chuckled. "You're one of the few males I've seen that Topaz hasn't treated like slime."

"Really, now?" Fulton's eyes went wide.

Slippy nodded. "She's a good fighter, pal, so if I were you, I'd do my best to stay on her good side."

Fulton chuckled a bit and nodded as he got back to work with the toad.

Moments after the chat, Peppy noticed something odd on one of the computers.

"Hmm, that's odd…" He took a closer look.

"What is it?" Krystal perked her ears as Fang looked on with her.

"I've a received a delayed message of sorts…from Fox." Peppy spoke, as he pressed a button, playing it…

Within seconds, the horrifying sounds of a tractor beam, and Fox struggling with his controls came on over the speakers. "Emergency! Emergency!... My ship seems to be caught in some kind of energy field! Possibly a tractor beam!…"I can't steer the ship, and the beam seems to have frozen my ejector functions! I can't escape! Repeat I can't escape!"

Krystal gasped out loud upon hearing this, her hands over her mouth, speechless, as the recording ended.

Fang quickly ran to Peppy's side. "Do you know where he might have been before this happened?"

Peppy nodded slowly. "Yes. He said was going to go take a look at that rock planet, Necross."

"Did you say Necross?" Topaz stepped into the room with a surprise look, before nodding slowly. "The Cybers must have taken him then, they MUST have. I remember distinctly from Xerxes' logs, that was the planet where he secretly started his work on them!"

Krystal shook her head. "But Topaz, we swept through that planet weeks ago, remember? We didn't find anything."

"Then they must have found a damn good way to hide on that place!" Fang almost laughed as he exclaimed.

"That's right." Topaz nodded. "Like I said before, they can be very crafty when they have to be, and god knows we've given them enough reasons to be crafty right now."

"It looks like they're correct." Peppy nodded as he looked to another screen. "I was able to trace Fox's message all the way back to his Arwing. It's currently located hundreds of feet underneath Necross, and down there I'm dectecting the signals of multiple Cybers!"

Krystal nodded as she quickly went to gather her equipment. "Well then…we know the planet, we know our enemies, and we know our hostage…So I'd say a rescue mission is in order!"

Topaz quickly nodded and gathered her things, as Fang quickly packed all of his weapons and supplies.

"All right! A chance to rescue the one and only Fox McCloud! There's no telling how famous we'll all get from this…especially me!" He laughed a bit, jokingly as he ran off ahead to his ship, as Topaz sighed and shook her head with a smile.

"You can't help but love him…Even if he is a prick sometimes." She mused to herself, as she walked off to join him.

"We'll keep an eye on you all from here." Peppy told Krystal. "If anything goes wrong, we'll be right there to back you up, okay?"

"Thank you, Peppy." Krystal nodded, as she ran off to join the others.

Within moments, all three of the ships in "Blue Specter" had taken off once more, on a one-way trip to Necross.

"I hope they haven't killed you, Fox…" Krystal thought to herself as she flew. "Dead or Alive, though, I know one thing's for sure…For what they've done to you, I'm going to wipe out every last stinking Cyber in your name! Count on it!"

She zoomed along in her Arwing, leading the way.

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"Sir…" Diamondo spoke from her recently acquired Wolfen ship, two Cybers controlling the other two ships. "I have just picked up the Blue Specter team on my scanners. They are now leaving the Great Fox, and are headed in our direction."

Xerxes' image came up on the screen in front of her. "Splendid…Wait for them to get close to Necross, make them think they're going to arrive quietly, and engage them. Do what you wish with the other two, but leave Krystal alive, and unspoiled…understood?"

"Yes sir…" Diamondo nodded, looking on patiently at her scanners.

Xerxes grinned as his image appeared in another room on the Necross base.

"All is going as I have planned." He turned and looked up at Fox, who was now in suspended animation, floating in the middle of a large glass tube, an empty one sitting right next to it.

"Do not be troubled, boy." He addressed the sleeping Fox. "You shall soon be reunited with your loved one…"

With that, he turned, and made his image vanish from the room once more.


	3. The Mission Begins

Krystal flew closer towards Necross as Fang and Topaz followed behind in their arwings, keeping their eyes open for anyone who may have been watching them at that moment.

"Okay, Necross is within range…" Fang spoke through his communicator.

Krystal nodded slowly. "Slow down everyone. If there are Cybers here, then we need to approach this place cautiously."

Topaz thought to herself as she slowed down her arwing, and spoke. "Krystal…one of us should go ahead of the others, and try to draw the Cybers' attention. We could very well get them to open up one of their hidden entrances in the process, and at least two of us could squeeze in through it, while the other one kept them occupied."

Krystal thought this over for a moment. "All right. Which one of you two want to do it?"

Fang quickly answered. "I'll do it…I know you probably had your heart set on it, Topaz but-"

Topaz interrupted. "Actually, I was going to suggest you do it too." She smiled lightly.

"Oh…ok then." Fang chuckled a bit, nervously, as he slowly pulled out ahead of his partners, heading straight for the surface of Necross.

Before he could get too close, however, shots suddenly sailed out from the distance behind the team.

"Fang! Behind you!" Krystal shouted, dodging the shots with Topaz as Fang grunted and pulled on his controls, the blasts barely missing his craft.

"Damn it!" He growled. "They know we're here already!"

The trio steadied their ships as Topaz looked at her scanners. "Krytal, I'm detecting three enemy craft behind us…it looks like the three stolen Star Wolf ships!"

Krystal's eyes went wide as she heard this, before she was also shocked by the next image that suddenly came up on her communicator, the face of what looked like a green-furred Cerinian Vixen looking sternly at her, as well as Fang and Topaz on their ships.

"We have you in our sights, organics…" Diamando spoke aloud. "If you disarm your weapons and surrender your craft now, then we promise no harm will come to you."

Topaz looked on at her face, stunned. "Who…are you?"

Diamando shot back. "That is none of your concern. Disarm now."

All of Krystal's team just sat there, pondering this announcement.

"You know…" Fang spoke to his allies. "Surrendering now might mean we could be taken to the heart of the enemy base, where we could strike at the best place, at just the right time."

Krystal immediately responded. "Or it might mean our immediate deletion, or being forced to become Cybers ourselves. Do you really want to take that risk?"

Fang thought it over, before quickly gripping his controls. "Hell no!"

With that, Fang's ship pulled down quickly, while Topaz's went off to the left sharply, while Krystal's went straight up.

"So, we want to be stubborn about this, eh?" Diamando said to herself, before communicating to the two Cybers piloting the other fighters. "Dispose of the other two in any way you see fit. Leave the leader to me."

"Affirmative." One of the Cybers responded, turning off in Leon's former ship to chase after Topaz, while the other turned down sharply in Panther's ship, in pursuit of Fang. Diamando pulled up on her controls with a computer's precision, going up and after Krystal.

Fang spun his ship in a barrel roll, to avoid the shots from the one Cyber's ship, turning sharply to the right as Topaz quickly bobbed her ship up and down to confuse the aim of the Cyber pursuing her.

Diamando nearly hit Krystal with her blasts from behind, aiming to cripple her arwing rather than destroy it. Krystal grunted and pulled her controls off to the left as one shot slightly clipped her right wing, shaking her a little.

"Damn!" Krystal grunted as she pulled. "She's good, whoever she is!" She turned sharply off to the left as Diamando stayed right on her rear, firing again as it barely missed Krystal's ship.

Diamando was so focused on crippling Krystal, however, that she didn't fully recognize Fang pulling in closer and closer behind her, with the one Cyber still right on his back. He dodged a shot every so often, and on purpose, let the Cyber get a clear shot at him, as he got closer to Diamando's ship.

"Go ahead and fire, you bastard!" Fang yelled, waiting for the Cyber to get its shot off, before suddenly diving down at the last second, the shot slamming into the back of Diamando's fighter instead!

Sparks flew from the Wolfen craft, as Diamando was shaken hard by the impact. Her brain was wired to experience certain emotions, so she was clearly angered by the friendly fire.

"Explain yourself, HG304!" She addressed the Cyber.

"My apologies, Diamando." The Cyber responded. "I was aiming for the enemy craft, but he proved much too swift."

This distraction allowed Krystal to fly off, while Topaz was busy evading the shots of the other Cyber's ship, turning and heading towards Krystal, before Topaz quickly fired at the Cyber, encouraging him to come back and chase her.

Krystal flew very close to the surface of Necross now, looking to find a way to get inside of this underground base. She didn't need to linger for too long, however, for a passage suddenly began to open on what had looked like a big boulder on the surface.

"Welcome, my dear." Xerxes' image came up on her communicator, smiling as Krystal's expression changed to one of complete shock.

"Well…I'm starting to see how fruitless this dogfight is going to be. All of your flying skills have advanced far beyond my expectations." He gave a signal to Diamando, who nodded, and called off the attack with her other ships.

Topaz gasped as she saw the spitting image of what was once her father's full organic body on her screen. "You're alive…"

Xerxes gave her a dirty look. "No thanks to you, treacherous child."

Topaz scowled and readied her weapons, preparing to go storming into the entrance as Diamando suddenly turned and aimed her guns at the blonde vixen.

"You stay right where you are, traitor!" The cybernetic green vixen stated firmly, Topaz exchanging glances with her as Xerxes addressed his creation on the comm.

"Now now, play nice, Diamando. Even if Topaz does want to try and rush in to kill me, she's going to find that task exceedingly difficult, if not totally impossible."

Diamando nodded slowly as she eased off on her weapons, Xerxes turning his attention back to Krystal. "I know you must have a million questions for me now, after discovering that I'm still amongst the living, and that's perfect, because I have about a million answers for you. So how about you come down into my new home, settle down for a bit, and the two of us can have a little chat?"

"About what?" Krystal narrowed her eyes.

Xerxes shrugged. "Oh, about the future…mine, yours, that of my precious Cybers…and of course the future of a very close acquaintance of yours." He made a split form in the screen, now on the left side, as the right side showed the image of Fox McCloud, floating in the stasis tube in the lab.

"What have you done to him!" Krystal sat straight up, growling, as she looked Xerxes right in the eyes.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Xerxes put up his hands. "I haven't done anything to him…yet."

Krystal frowned as Xerxes slowly put his hands down. "Just come and chat with me, Krystal…that's all I ask of you."

"Only if I get to come with her!" Topaz stated firmly from her ship, jumping in on the conversation.

Xerxes thought this over…and decided it wouldn't hurt. They'd both be on his turf anyway, and he could have Topaz "deleted" at a moment's notice.

"Very well." Xerxes nodded, as he looked over to Fang. "You're welcome to come as well."

Fang shook his head. "No thanks. I think at least one of us needs to keep an eye on things out here."

"Good thinking, Fang." Krystal smiled a bit, as she spoke to Topaz. "Well, let's go then…"

Topaz let Krystal pass her as she nodded and soon followed after, Diamando giving the two Cybers instructions to watch Fang in his arwing, as she followed behind the two as well.

The three ships dove down into the opening, the rocky passageway slowly changing into smooth polished steel, lights from the circuitry whizzing by them as they slowly moved down into the hidden Cyber base, seeing Cybers patrol the metal grounds every so often, the base a complex network of large rooms connected by narrow, almost claustrophobic corridors. The landing pad for all of the ships, which they were now heading towards, was the largest of all of these rooms.

Krystal looked on nervously as she landed with Topaz, seeing Fox's arwing in one corner, under heavy guard of a group of Cybers.

She and Topaz slowly disembarked from their arwings, keeping close to each other, as Diamando walked in front of them, her long metal staff at her side.

"This way…" She spoke, leading the two vixens along, as Topaz and Krystal followed her cautiously.

The path led them through one of the narrow corridors, Diamando just walking on with a blank look on her face, as she twisted a handle off to her right, and made a door open in front of them, leading the vixens into large, circular room, with a huge monitor in the center.

Just as Topaz and Krystal stepped into the room, seeing the Cybers standing guard around them, the imposing image of the new Xerxes came up on the big screen.

"So…what do you think of it?" Xerxes smiled, motioning around his room.

Topaz narrowed her gaze. "All this time you've been only appearing to us on screen? Where are you hiding?"

Xerxes chuckled a bit. "Oh you want to see the real me? Then I'm afraid you'll have to go digging into the computer systems, to find my brain, because that's all that's left now."

Krystal nodded slowly. "So…you've finally become one with technology you love so much, with the steel you value over precious life itself."

Topaz nodded and added. "You may look like your old self on that screen, but deep down, you still have the same black mechanical heart you had when you were partially cybernetic, I'll bet. Filled with the same deceit, the same lies…so how do we know that what you're about to tell us isn't just another pack of these lies."

"This has gone beyond the point of simple manipulation, child." Xerxes sneered. "I have nothing to hide anymore." He looked to his Cybers, and over to a star chart on another screen. "I may have lied when I said that the plague that swept through Mondas was due to the pollution on that planet, but I tell you, I did not lie when I said that those people were deathly afraid of what was going on, with all of the warring between worlds, that led them to seal themselves away from everyone. The very same fear that was beginning to grab a hold of Cerinia as well."

He watched a few of his Cybers working before talking again. "Look at them…do you see any fear? Do see any malice? Do you see any reason for my Cybers to hate, to persecute, or to go to war with one another? This is the future I envision for the galaxy. Why can't you people accept this?"

Krystal lowered her gaze at Xerxes. "It may have something to do with the fact that you'll kill anyone who gets in the way of your twisted vision, including your own people, and your own family!" Topaz nodded firmly in agreement.

Xerxes shook his head. "It can't be helped. There are simply those who will not accept the inevitable future that I bring…and they are exactly the ones that must be deleted, for the greater good my future offers."

Topaz stepped forward, impatiently. "I've had it up to here with your nonsense! Let's just cut through the garbage and get to the point. Where did you put Fox?"

"All in good time…" Xerxes spoke firmly. "First I need to discuss something very important-"

Krystal lost her patience as well, speaking up. "To hell with your discussion! There is nothing that a murderer like you can offer that we'll ever accept! Now where the hell is Fox?"

Xerxes frowned. He was hoping he could use his hostage to get her to co-operate with him, but if this was how she wanted to play it, then it was fine by him.

"You want to find your Fox?…fine. But you're going to have to find him all by yourself…and don't expect any help from my Cybers, because I am now giving them orders to delete you on site!"

The Cybers immediately turned and held out their arms, firing their laser weapons as Topaz quickly turned and swung her staff from her left to her right, smacking one of the blasts right back towards the Cybers, making it hit one as it sparked and fell over. Krystal rolled out of the way of another blast and held out her staff with her right arm, getting a fireball off as it hit one Cyber right in the mouth, making it spark as it fell forward.

They both jumped out of the way of more blasts, as Diamando stepped forward and held her staff off to the side.

"Hold your fire! I'll handle this!" She proclaimed, before holding out her staff with both arms, the head suddenly splitting in half as a bolt of electricity shot out of the spot underneath.

Topaz rolled quickly out of the way as the bolt-made impact between the two vixens. "Whoa! Who is this girl?" Her eyes were wide open.

Krystal didn't know what to say in return, as Diamando yelled out and jumped down towards them, somersaulting before landing and swinging her staff out to her left, knocking away Topaz's as she tried to run in and swing for her with her right arm. Topaz stumbled as Krystal twirled her staff above her head, making a swing from her right towards Diamando's head. Diamando ducked with amazing precision, and brought her staff forward, jabbing the head into Krystal's stomach.

Krystal bent over from the pain, as Diamando made a small leap up, smacking Krystal right in the face with a hard jump kick, as Krystal's head snapped back from the impact, grunting and falling over as Topaz let loose with an Ice blast, holding her staff out with her left arm.

Diamando quickly spun out of the way to her left as the ice flew over and froze one of the nearby Cybers instead. Diamando came out of the spin and tossed her staff, making it fly right towards Topaz, and smacking it into her left hand perfectly, making Topaz grunt and drop her staff.

Diamando then ran in and fought Topaz hand to hand, expertly slapping away all of the blonde vixen's punches as she threw lefts, rights, and even a spinning backhand with her right. It was from this spinning backhand that Diamando quickly caught Topaz's right arm, and let her have it with a hard series of kicks from her left foot, that went right into Topaz's back.

Topaz grunted and groaned with each kick, as Krystal got back up and went behind Diamando, trying to get a hold of her as she put her staff across her neck. Diamando simply kicked Topaz out of the way as she grunted, and grabbed a hold of the staff, using her momentum as she bent over to flip Krystal over onto her back. Krystal groaned from the impact of her back hitting the floor, as Diamando held onto the staff with her left hand, and held up her right, as a threatening, long metal needle suddenly shot out of her wrist.

"Holy crap! She's Cyber!" Topaz quickly realized, as Krystal nodded and rolled out of the way with her staff just as Diamando let go of it and thrust down at her, her needle piercing the metal floor instead, as Krystal got back up and quickly brought her right foot over, kicking Diamando across the face as she was getting back up, giving the two time to blast and push any Cybers out of their way, as they escaped into one of the other corridors.

Diamando simply looked on as she made the needle retract into her wrist, looking to her group of Cybers. "Find them…"

As this was all going on, Fang was now quickly trying to fly away from Necross, now that the other two Star Wolf ships had suddenly moved into attack formation, and were trying to shoot him down.

"This is Fang to Peppy!" He shouted into his Communicator. "Fang to Peppy! Something's happened on Necross. I don't know what, but Topaz and Krystal are stuck down there, and the Cybers are trying to take me down. I'm holding my own out here, but I don't know for how much longer. Request assistance! Repeat: Request assistance!"

He quickly dove away once more as the two Cybers came together and fired at the same time, hoping his message would reach the Great Fox.

At the same time, Diamando walked into a lab room, one different from the one where Fox was being held, as she went past the generator that had created her, and covered her in her special flesh.

"I was a fool to let Topaz come in with her." Xerxes lamented on one of the screens in the room. "She knows all too well about my systems and layouts. She can hide easily." He then smiled a bit. "No matter though…luckily I've done some studying of my own, about our friend Krystal…her strengths…her past…her adversaries, other than us."

He then grinned down at a cryogenic chamber nearby, as Diamando walked over and stroked the fogged glass some.

"What is the Saurian's condition?" She inquired.

"Stable." He answered. "Mind you, a creature like this, who I couldn't salvage too many surviving cells from, and who's been dead for such a long time, takes a while to put back together. But once the replicators are done, and the re-assembling is complete, along with my special enhancements, this big fellow should be well worth the effort.

Diamando nodded gently as she wiped away the fog, revealing the closed eyes of a green, scaled, reptilian face…


	4. New Foe, Familiar Face

"Hey Peppy!" Falco waved to the hare as he ran up to the deck, with Fulton and Slippy following close behind. "What's happening? What'd you call us here for?"

Peppy had a serious look on his face. "It looks like 'Blue Specter' is in trouble. I just got a distress call from Fang. He's under attack it seems, while Topaz and Krystal look like they're stuck on Necross somewhere."

"The Cybers captured them?" Fulton asked, as he sounded very concerned.

"I'm not sure..." Peppy shook his head. "All I know is, I should send Fang some help as soon as I can." He looked over to the young wolf. "Mr. Reese…how is your piloting skill?"

Fulton scratched his head some. "Oh, not too bad."

Slippy chuckled. "Ah, he's being modest. I saw him heading towards the Great Fox when he came here. He was making better turns than a guy at his current development has any right to be."

"Is that so?" Peppy smiled a bit, as he looked to Fulton again. "Think you'll be able to fly with us, young man?"

"Yes sir!" Fulton nodded enthusiastically, seeing the chance to fly with Team Starfox to be a great honor.

"Good!" Peppy grinned. "I have some extra arwings being prepped on the lower levels. Take whichever one you wish. And hurry! Fang sounds like he's in serious trouble."

Fulton nodded and walked off with Falco and Slippy, passing by the cell where Panther was being held.

"Hey…" Panther spoke from the window. "Where are you going? If you're gonna go after those Cybers, then take me with you!"

Falco scoffed as he turned to face him. "What? And run the risk of you going on the lam in process? What do you think we are? Retarded?"

Panther looked at the group and then back at Falco, smiling. "Well yes…I mean I kind of assumed that from you guys still keeping the toad around." He looked to Slippy. "No offense…"

Slippy scoffed, and in an uncharacteristic move, flashed Panther a rude gesture. "None taken."

"Forget it, pal." Falco sneered. "The only flying you're gonna do with us, is when we take your sorry ass to a prison colony."

"You're going to talk to me in such a tough way?" Panther sneered as they started to walk off. "I saw you getting your ass kicked by that girl!"

Falco turned, and simply smiled. "You're one to talk…remember who brought you here?"

Panther's eyes went wide as he remembered, then flattened his ears as he grumbled, and went back to sit down inside of his cell. Peppy watched all of this, and thought to himself quietly, as Fulton split off from Falco and Slippy to get to his arwing.

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Krystal and Topaz had found a passage down into a service tunnel under the main floor of the Cyber base on Necross soon after their escape from Diamando, running along the dimly lit paths together, the plaster ground damp beneath their feet.

"Question…" Krystal spoke as she ran. "How do you access important information from a computer system that's controlled directly by the leader of your enemies?"

Topaz mulled this over as she searched around in the tunnel system, listening for the tromping steps of Cybers above them. "I don't believe that he has firm control of every system on this base. An organic brain, even the most brilliant, has its limits when used with this sort of technology."

She led Krystal down another tunnel on a hunch. "I think we need to get as far from his central processor as we can, and reach some small, negligible terminal on another part of the base. I might be able to patch something through, like a map, or some coordinates, and get it into our hands while keeping him from intercepting the transmission."

Krystal nodded, and walked down another tunnel with her as she shook her head, her mind turning to another subject. "Can you believe it? He made a Cyber that looks just like us!"

Topaz sighed and nodded. "I know…I guess after I turned against him, he felt the need to have a new right hand."

Krystal shook her head again. "But I don't understand…I thought Xerxes was only a master of mechanical, and cybernetic technology. Where did he get the knowledge to reproduce such realistic organic flesh?"

Topaz sighed for a moment. "Mother must have taught him a few things."

"Rose taught him?…" Krystal scratched her head, mentioning the name of Topaz's mother. Her real name was Rosalyn, but Topaz explained that Rose was her nickname.

"Yes." Topaz nodded. "See, in addition to knowing how to defend herself in the Cerinian tradition, she was also an accomplished biologist. She wasn't a prodigy, but she was still rather good. She told me once that she was even part of this project, called 'Life Force'…"

Krystal listened, interested, as the passage they walked on began to angle up. "See, the idea was to introduce this device, made up of so many devices and chemicals that would take me all day to describe, and just fire the thing at a dead planet. It would create this huge wave of energy that would eventually bring life to the planet, water, an atmosphere, you name it, and you could customize it to make the planet into anything you desired."

Topaz then looked down as she walked. "Unfortunately, just as they were working on the prototype, Cerinia was attacked."

Krystal looked on as she walked. "It's a shame. Your mother could have helped bring a lot of good to the galaxy through her work."

Topaz nodded and smiled a bit, opening up her necklace as the music played once more, looking at the picture. "She cared so much, you know…about everyone. When we were on Mondas, and the plague swept through the city, it really upset her. I even saw her cry over it once. She really wanted to help those people." She then frowned a bit. "Of course that was how she found out about what Xerxes was really up to with his Life 2.0 project, which she was always suspicious of. She secretly studied the water and the blood of the people very, very closely, and found his engineered virus, which he had created using the knowledge she had shared with him on viruses, in one sample, which of course led her to later discover his secret logs, and then…well you know the rest…"

Krystal patted Topaz's back as she closed the necklace up, stopping the music, as their minds turned back to Xerxes.

"We've thwarted him before, Topaz…" Krystal spoke. "And as long as he keeps trying to push his twisted ideals onto everyone, we're going to keep thwarting him. Now let's go stop him from doing any more damage, and make your mother proud."

Topaz nodded with a smile, as she ran with Krystal, looking for the nearest exit, as they were now rested, and ready to fight once more.

As this all went on, Diamando was standing in the corner of the same lab room she had walked into earlier, just watching with a small smile as Xerxes manipulated the controls to the cryo-tube, using a pair of robotic arms that came out from walls.

Within moments, the tube slowly opened, the work on the specimen now complete as steam flowed freely from the inside out. From this steam, a large figure began to emerge…the figure of what used to be General Scales of the Sharpclaw.

Scales jumped down from the tube, and stood slowly, both his organic eyes replaced by glowing, computerized ones, his snout covered mostly in chrome, with sharp titanium teeth, his scales still present on the back of his head, as well as parts of his arms, legs, and chest. Most of his body, however, was now covered over in cybernetic implants, his arms from the elbows down in the form of enormous metal limbs, his large fingers flexing slowly as his long, metal tail, complete with a laser blaster at the tip. Swished gently.

Xerxes smiled and addressed Diamando. "Once the leader of an entire Saurian tribe, he is now my powerful left hand, to go with you as my right…He shall now go by the name I give him…Ares."

He then looked to his newly christened creation. "How do you feel?"

Ares answered coldly, his voice having some electronic distortion. "I feel nothing."

"Good." Xerxes smiled. "What is your primary function?"

Ares answered once more. "To serve you, the great creator, and to serve and protect the ideals and systems of Life 2.0, at any cost."

Xerxes grinned and nodded. Ares' newly wired brain was obviously in good working order. "Splendid. I have an assignment for you, then."

Ares turned to a screen as Xerxes showed him pictures of Krystal and Topaz. "These two Cerinians are currently on the run in the lower levels of this base. I want you to go off with Diamando, find these two, and delete them at once. You shall be given command of your own unit of Cybers to assist you in this."

"Affirmative…" Ares nodded slowly, before tromping off slowly on his metal feet, Diamando following as she twirled her metal staff behind her.

Krystal and Topaz slowly opened a door, and peeked into a lightly guarded room in the base, Topaz looking to her left and right.

"Well, I'd say we're pretty far from the center of this place, from the looks of this room." She said, as Krystal nodded gently. The two slowly crept out of doorway, trying to avoid detection as they stayed in the shadows, creeping along the walls.

Topaz slowly went over to the end of one hallway, where a doorway into what looked like a computer lab as just behind her at the side. She slowly turned and took a peek inside…

Unfortunately, there was Cyber standing right at the doorway, looking right at her.

"Delete!" The Cyber exclaimed, holding out its hand and firing.

Topaz yelled out and grabbed Krystal, pulling her along as they were both spotted now, Cybers walking out and firing at them from other rooms, as Topaz held out her staff and froze one of them with an ice blast, as Krystal ran over behind her and swung her staff at the Cyber's frozen head, shattering it.

Topaz jumped as she ran towards another room, nailing another Cyber in the head as she extended her left foot in a jump kick, sending it back into two other Cybers, as another Cyber suddenly grabbed Krystal from behind her. She struggled and managed to grab its right arm as it tried to send an electrical current with its hand, rolling down and forward as she pulled the Cyber's arm, taking it down with her as it flipped onto its back. Krystal still had a hold of the Cyber's arm as she nailed the machine in the head with an elbow, and grabbed its wrist, twisting the arm as the current still ran through the Cyber's hand, making it touch it's own chest, and making it shock itself to death in the process.

Krystal quickly got up and swung her staff to the right, knocking away another Cyber as she ran to join Topaz in another room, Topaz quickly turning the handle and closing the doors, learning how to engage the locks as well.

"Well, so much for the subtle approach." Topaz grunted, walking to the computer terminal in the room and typing away.

Krystal looked to the door, the Cybers pounding away at it, as she looked back at Topaz. "How long is this going to take?"

"Hopefully not too long." Topaz spoke as she worked. "It all depends on how much of a stronghold Xerxes has on this sector." She furiously typed away as she hacked into the system, successfully keeping any attempts by Xerxes to prevent her from obtaining what she needed.

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Fang was nervously clutching at his controls as he rolled and ducked the furious attempts by the two Cybers in their ships trying to bring him down. One shot clipped his left wing, as he was shaken, and pulled quickly off to the left.

"Damn it!" He exclaimed, dodging another shot. "I sure hope my message got through…I've got too much left to do for Corneria to have it all end here!"

"Don't worry buddy…",a familiar voice came on over the communicator. "You're gonna have plenty time left to bug everyone on the force."

"Falco!" Fang shot up in his seat, as he saw the impromptu Starfox team, complete with newcomer Fulton, zoom in from the opposite direction. "Boy, am I glad to see you guys!"

"Hang tight, Fang." Falco responded. "We're gonna scratch this little itch for you right now!"

Falco then suddenly saw one of the Cybers flying right towards him, getting ready to fire, before another shot came out from right side, and smacked into the stolen Wolfen craft, making it fly away from the Starfox veteran.

"Hey, nice shot, Fulton!" Slippy called out from the other ship.

"Thanks" Fulton grinned as he gripped the controls to his arwing. "These ships are a bit trickier than what I'm used to, but I think I'm getting a handle on it nonetheless."

Falco nodded. "Well, keep surprising us with your skill, Fulton, because it looks like we're gonna need even more of it."

He motioned in front of everyone as Fang pulled over to join their group. The two Wolfen ships regrouped, and sat there, as a squadron of crescent shaped Cyber fighters suddenly appeared from the distance behind them.

"Hoooh boy…" Fulton fidgeted in his seat, nervously.

"They must have realized that Fang was looking for help." Slippy observed.

Fang adjusted his weapons systems as he saw the ships flying closer. "I think you're lost, guys." He grinned as he addressed the Cybers. "Necross is THAT way!" He pointed with his finger to his front. "Let's give them a little guidance!"

Falco nodded slowly, as he watched, and waited, while the enemy ships flew closer and closer.

Once they were close enough, he shouted. "Ok guys, give 'em hell!" Leading the charge into the new battlefield in space.

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"I've almost got it…" Topaz smiled as she hacked into the computer still. "I've almost got it."

Krystal nodded as she looked to the door; light dents being made in it now as the Cybers pounded away, trying to disengage the locks.

With the push of a button, Topaz finally printed out some papers on a special generator next to her monitor, and picked them up a moment later.

"Here they are! The exact coordinates to where Fox is being held!"

"Great!" Krystal smiled, looking to another door in the room. "Now let's get the hell out of here before they bust in!"

Topaz nodded and ran off with Krystal, heading for what they thought was a safe door. Just before they reached it, however, a loud THUMP came from outside of it. A huge dent was made in the door, as the two vixens jumped back, keeping their distance, as a strong blast shot through the door, blowing it wide open.

Krystal looked on in shock as she saw what came through the shadows of the door's wreckage. The form of Ares, the one-time General Scales, tromping in through the doorway slowly, as a unit of freshly polished Cybers marched in around him, surrounding Krystal and Topaz.

Ares lowered his gaze, his red computerized eyes glowing as he spoke in his electronic gargle.

"Deletion is the only way out…"


	5. Heat and Hatred

"Who is that?…" Topaz furrowed her brow as she walked up next to Krystal, getting a good look at Ares, staring back at them.

Krystal scowled. "I'd know that ugly face anywhere…it's General Scales!"

Topaz dropped her jaw. "But…I thought you told me he was dead."

"That was what I assumed." Krystal responded as she stood with her staff at the ready.

"I have discarded the title of General Scales…call me Ares now." The large, mechanically enhanced Saurian spoke, his distorted voice echoing through the room.

"All right, then, Ares…" Krystal responded. "So what is the great leader of the Sharpclaw tribe doing, following the orders of Xerxes?"

"Xerxes saved me from oblivion." Ares spoke. "He has shown me a better way of life. One without pain, or conflict, or death…and I shall see to it that this way of life is realized, by eliminating all opponents of the great creator, starting with you."

He then gave the order to the Cybers, as they all fired around the two at the same time. Krystal and Topaz immediately jumped up, both of them grabbing onto the rafters above them and hanging as the shots went past them, the Cybers hitting each other by accident.

Ares lifted and fired his tail blaster, smacking into the rafters as the force shook through them, forcing the two vixens to let go as Ares ran in with his right arm reared back, lunging forward in a big punch towards Krystal as she fell towards the ground. Krystal simply grunted and slammed the staff against his metal arm as she reached her feet, making his body quake a bit as Topaz yelled and thrust her staff in front of him, poking him right in the left eye.

Ares growled and shot back with his left arm in a hard punch, Topaz blocking with her staff as the fist slammed into her, sending her flying into a wall, as Krystal jumped and spun with a left kick, knocking away Ares right arm as she landed and spun again, bringing up her staff with both arms, smacking Ares across the left side of his face. This only angered Ares further, as he grabbed Krystal with his right arm, picked her up, and threw her across the room, making her collide with Topaz as she got back to her feet.

The two vixens rolled and groaned as the Cybers let Ares do his work, watching as he growled and held out both his arms. Slots opened on his wrists, revealing a pair of incinerators as they flared to life, opening his steel jaws as a third incinerator appeared in his mouth.

"This guy sure has a lot of toys!" Topaz exclaimed, as she and Krystal ran out of the way together, Ares rearing back, and yelling out as he breathed a great mass of fire from his maw, letting loose with flames from his wrists at the same time. Krystal grunted and avoided the flames, letting out an ice blast from her staff to shield herself from the larger flames, as Topaz did the same with her own staff.

They waited until the flames subsided, before Krystal looked to her partner. "Topaz! On three! One…two….Three!"

The two Cerinians held out both their staffs with both arms, letting two strong ice blasts fly at the same time. Ares put up his arms in front of his face, instinctively, as the ice blasts covered his metal limbs, freezing them, and thus disabling his incinerators.

Ares grunted as he struggled to fire up all of his weapons, desperately trying to scrape the ice off of his arms, as Topaz grinned and kneeled, letting Krystal run up from behind as she jumped, springing off of Topaz's back, as she sailed high into the air, her feet above her as she reached the distracted Ares, putting her staff over his neck as she let her momentum carry her behind him as she fell, putting her feet on his back as she began to pull him down with her staff, rolling onto her back as she yelled, and used her momentum to pull Ares down, making him face the ceiling as she let go with her staff and pushed him off with her feet.

The enhanced Saurian went sailing into the air, doing a single flip, before his large, metal covered form crashed into a collection of Cybers behind him, rolling with them as they all smashed into a group of pipes, sending smoke and steam everywhere.

Krystal rolled onto her feet as she ran over to Topaz, who quickly gave her the co-ordinates to where Fox was being held.

"Here!" She yelled. "Go find him! I'll keep these guys busy for you!"

"Thanks, Topaz!" Krystal nodded, as she ran out of the room, Topaz taking another path as Ares got back to his feet, drawing his attention with a fireball from her staff as he led his Cybers after her.

Krystal ran into another door before more Cybers could find her, following the coordinates as she ran down a ramp into another underground tunnel, the familiar moisture touching her feet once more as she leaned against a wall, hidden once more as she caught her breath for a moment.

She sighed and looked to the canteen she kept in her pocket, picking it up. "Thank you again, Fang." She grinned, as she unscrewed the top, taking a sip of the Red Cactus within.

"I can see how this helps him." She giggled to herself, as she put the canteen away, careful not to drink too much as she also reached into her rations pocket, pulling out another small, stale pastry, as she took a few nibbles.

With that, she walked slowly along the tunnel, little water drops echoing through the passageway as she looked to the papers with her coordinates, finding an intersection and making a right…

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"My stabilizer's loose again!" Slippy yelled as he weaved out of the way of a Cyber fighter's blasts, firing away at another one in front of him.

"Damn!" Fulton exclaimed as he rolled out of the way of one Cyber fighter, making it collide with another one along the way. "After spending all that time fixing the thing too!"

"Ahhh, that's just Slippy for ya, Fulton!" Falco spoke as he fired at a fighter flying right towards him, destroying it. "You get used to after a while…believe me!"

"Okay, knock off the chatter, you guys!" Fang shouted, pulling up hard, and coming in from behind to shoot down a Cyber fighter on Fulton's tail. "We've got a whole gang of these tin cans trying turn us into space debris! So let's stay focused, and send these brain scoopers back to the factory!"

"Finally taking charge, huh, Rookie?" Falco grinned.

"For Krystal, Topaz, and your Fox? You'd better believe it!" Fang shot back.

Falco nodded softly. "He's right guys…no more fooling around. Let's get ourselves some distance, and re-assemble in attack formation!"

The others nodded as they went along with Fang and Falco.

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Krystal walked down into a sloping passageway, walking down into it gently as she held her staff to her right, looking all around and back to her coordinates, putting them away in her pocket once she was sure she was going the right way, hoping Topaz was doing all right in hiding from Ares and the others.

The air seemed to get warmer and warmer the further she walked down into the passage, finally reaching the door. The handle was almost too hot to endure, as she turned it, opening the thing up.

She looked out and realized she had reached one of the major power supplies of the base. There were slick metal catwalks and bridges everywhere, but currently no Cybers to patrol the area, the ground hard and rocky.

Necross may have been a dead planet on the outside, but there was an abundance of hot magma coming up from the core of the planet. It was, for some reason, unable to break through the hard, rocky surface of the planet, but it was easily supplying the underground base with an abundance of geothermal steam for energy, as evidenced from the metal pipes that ran along several inches of the walls, leading up into the base itself.

Krystal walked up onto one of the wide metal bridges over the magma, looking up at the pipes, and then straight ahead at the path, finding the bridge branched off in a few different directions. She got her coordinates back out, and studied them, figuring out the best way to go.

She then put them away, not realizing that Diamando, who had come in from another doorway, was standing behind her.

"Welcome…" she spoke with a small smile, as Krystal jumped and spun with her staff, aiming for Diamando's head from the left side, as Diamando simply brought up her own staff, blocking the swing as she brought up the other end, trying to smack Krystal's head in return, as Krystal quickly twirled her staff, briefly making Diamando's fly out of her hands as she spun and let her have it with a kick across the neck. Diamndo grunted as the force sent her flying head over heels, before she landed right on her feet, and caught her staff as it fell right back down towards her.

Diamando smiled as she twirled her staff in her hands. "You're skilled…much more so than Wolf O'Donnell to be sure…"

"So you're the one who did the killing…" Krystal nodded softly, before furrowing her brow, in her fighting stance. "You stole his ship too…But what is it that you want with the thing, exactly, out of all the other ships you could take?"

Diamando smiled and shook her head. "You're not getting any secrets out of me, young lady…" the Cybernetic Cerinian got into her own stance. "They only thing you're going to get out of all this trouble is a quick, painless death…I could make it much more painful though…it all depends on how much longer you plan on being stubborn."

Krystal scowled as she readied herself. "Well then you'd better get ready to dish out all the pain you can, you pitiful excuse for a Cerinian."

"Cerinia and its people are dead, just as you and your friend shall soon be…" Diamando grinned. "I am eternal…"

Krystal yelled out in rage as she twirled her staff to her side, swinging it up towards Diamando's face as she quickly blocked it with her staff, turning and spinning on one leg as she delivered a side kick with her other, hitting Krystal right in the stomach as she fell back.

Krystal then held out her staff with one arm and shot off a fireball, Diamando ducking with her flexible body, as she countered once she lowered herself, a flame thrower opening up on the end of her staff as a spray of flame flew right towards the blue vixen. Krystal rolled back and shot off an ice blast, the ice she created quickly melting in the hot room as the magma bubbled below the bridge.

Diamando attacked one again, running in and springing off her feet, delivering a front kick with one foot as Krystal blocked it with her staff, trying to get her in the face with a straight punch, as Diamando quickly grabbed her fist in her hand, and squeezed it hard.

Krystal grunted and yelled out in pain as Diamando stood there with a smile, bending Krystal's fist back some as the blue vixen went down on one knee, quickly smacking the ground with her staff as the bridge rumbled some. Diamando stumbled a bit, as Krystal sprung off her knee, and made her head collide with that of the green vixen.

Diamando grunted and let go as she fell back, Krystal rubbing her head before she ran towards the cyber vixen with her staff, ready to swing it once more before Diamando suddenly threw her staff at her with amazing precision, making it collide with Krystal's hands as she dropped her staff in the process, Diamando then charging in and jumping, letting the blue vixen have it with a hard jump kick in the center of her chest.

Krystal yelled out in pain as she flew back some and hit the bridge hard, rolling a bit and finding her staff, grabbing it as Diamando quickly jumped over next to her, and started thrusting one of her feet at her back, kicking her repeatedly while she was down, a few times in the back, and once in the head as Krystal tried to get back up, smacking it back down against the ground.

Krystal eventually rolled away from this barrage, spinning on her back with her feet as she brought her staff over with one arm, sweeping Diamando's feet out from under her as the Green vixen fell over onto her stomach, the blue vixen getting back up onto one knee, as she brought her staff above her head, and swung it down with a thwack against Diamando's back.

Diamando grunted, and growled a bit as she quickly rolled towards Krystal, suddenly making the metal needle shoot out of her wrist, and jamming it into the blue vixen's left leg.

Krystal screamed out in pain, as Diamando grinned and quickly pulled out, turning and clipping her across the chin with a left hook as she got back up, making Krystal fall onto her back as she rolled away.

The confident cyber vixen ran towards Krystal as she got onto her right knee, looking to the wound on her left leg as she felt the adrenaline rushing through her body, putting her fingers on the head of her staff.

"Spirit fury!"

Her staff began to glow, as Diamando activated a magnetic device in her staff, making it fly back into her metal hands as she extracted two sharp blades on the head of her staff, spinning and taking a swing at the blue vixen. Krystal responded by screaming out in her rage with the attack, coming up and swinging her staff in the opposite direction, knocking it right out of Diamando's hands.

Diamando was thrown by the move, stumbling a bit on her feet, as Krystal screamed again and swung her staff right for the green Vixen's head, slicing the right side of her face wide open.

Diamando, whose designed skin had been given pain receptors for practical purposes, screamed out as she felt a kind of wound she had never felt before, clutching her face as it caught on fire from the energy of Krystal's staff as well.

Krystal stood there and watched, cancelling the Spirit Fury before it drained her, as Diamando groaned and found her staff, blasting her face and her hands, which had also briefly caught fire, with the freezer inside of it, putting out the fire on her body.

The blue vixen saw her chance for escape, and remembered a move she'd learned from Topaz, touching her staff to the ground, creating a wall of fire that Diamando cowered away from in her current condition. Krystal ran off swiftly, onto one of the branching passages on the bridge.

Diamando watched on with a growl, the upper right side of her face now completely burned off, revealing parts of her shiny metal skull, and her real right eye, which glowed a greenish blue.

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Topaz lurked around the hallways of the lower levels of the base, skillfully evading Ares and his Cybers as they patrolled the halls, hiding in the shadows, empty rooms, and even a waste disposal unit at one point.

The blonde vixen then slipped into a larger room, which was more brightly lit than the others, looking to her left and right as there were no Cybers to be found at the moment. Some of the equipment looked oddly familiar to her, as she walked around and studied some of the keyboards and computer screens.

She then looked over and saw some papers lying on one of the counters, picking them up and reading them. They were notes; notes about all sorts of different things pertaining to biology, much of it underlined and given extra detail in handwriting as well as printed words.

Topaz immediately recognized the handwriting…it was her mother's.

"What the hell is this all about?" She wondered. "What would Xerxes be holding onto my mother's notes for?"

She then heard the tromping of the Cybers in the distance, as she quickly ran off to hide from them again in the hallways.

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"My poor child!" Xerxes exclaimed, as Diamando came back to the lab in order to treat her damaged face. "Did that awful Cerinian you were after do this to you?"

Diamando nodded. "Yes sir…but don't you worry. Once I've fixed myself up, I'm going to find that little bitch, and make her wish she had died when Cerinia was blown up!"

Xerxes grinned in surprise. "You're first curse, child…you're really developing better than I had expected." He thinks of something afterward. "What is the condition of your Wolfen ship?"

"It's still in good shape." Diamando responded, as she rubbed gel over the flesh along her face, to stop any infections."

"Good." Xerxes nodded. "I don't need to tell you again how badly we need this craft. It's swift, it's powerful, and it's undetectable. It's the perfect delivery system."

He looked over to an unusual device in one corner. It was sleek and black in color, shaped a lot like a missile.

"Once everything goes according to plan, we shall slip through all of their defenses, and Corneria will be ours for re-modeling. It shall finally be reborn as a world of my choosing…a world of Cybers…"

He smiled at the missile, which had two words written along the side…

LIFE FORCE


	6. Surprise Ally

"How are things with your new team going?" Fox asked Krystal, sitting across from her at the table, in the restaurant.

"Oh, not too bad." Krystal smiled lightly as she ate her food slowly. "It's exhausting work, being the leader of a whole team, but of course you know all about that from your experience."

Fox took another bite of his food as he chuckled a bit and nodded. "Yeah, but you're still doing a good job…at least that's what I've been hearing on the grapevine."

Krystal shrugged. "I'm just doing what I always do…" she sipped from her drink off to the side. "…I don't really pay much heed to what others say about me at this point. My only concern right now is finding every Cyber left in this galaxy, and stopping it before anyone else gets hurt."

Fox looked to her softly as he ate. "So…once you've finished hunting down these things, and making sure that every one of them is gone…what do you plan on doing afterward?"

Krystal thought this over. "Well…there won't be much for me left to do once I've finished this. Ever since Cerinia was destroyed, I dedicated myself to finding the answers behind it all…and now I have. I've destroyed the leader of the culprits, and I've scattered his surviving soldiers. I think my spirit will finally be at peace, once this is all settled."

"So…what?" Fox furrowed his brow. "Are you going to leave the force, or something?"

Krystal nodded gently. "I've been giving it serious thought. To finally settle down somewhere, possibly on Corneria, and just move on with my life."

Fox tapped his fingers on the table nervously as a new question entered his mind, smiling sheepishly. "Will there…be room for someone else? In your life, from then on?"

Krystal blushed a bit as she smiled gently, before responding. "We'll see…" she scooped up another bite of her food. "We'll see…"

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Krystal smiled a bit to herself as she went back over this recent memory, walking out of the magma filled room, and into another passageway, as she checked her coordinates.

"Fox…" she thought to herself as she walked. "For such a long time, it was easy for me to forget, about all the wonderful things you've done for me, in the past. Saving me on Sauria, taking me in as a member of Starfox…and taking such good care of me in the middle of it all…" She sighed to herself and looked down. "Care that I so often took for granted, after a while."

She then walked forward a bit quicker now, a new determination in her eyes. "Well, hold on, Fox…Because today I'm going to repay you for all of it! After saving me all that time ago, I'm now going to save you! I'm going to get you out of that tube, and off of this brutal planet, and to top it off, I'm going to send Xerxes right back to the abyss, where he belongs!"

She took one more sip of Red Cactus from her canteen, before she put it away and looked at the coordinates once more, running up another upward slanting path, as she slowly reached another door.

Krystal slowly opened the door, now feeling a blast of very cold air as she did so.

"Wow…from one extreme, to the other." She thought to herself as she shivered a bit, taking a look around inside of the room.

She walked carefully along the cold, slippery floor, as she soon realized where she was, seeing the containers in the distance…this was a bio-matter storage room. There were brains, leftover from Xerxes' original secret experiments, the ones that led to the creation of the Cybers, floating in little tanks, with wires attached to them, keeping them active.

The blue vixen sighed and shook her head slowly, as she walked up to one of the tanks, and placing her paw on the glass, addressing the brain inside of it.

"I'm so sorry this had to happen to you…" she spoke softly. "To all of you…and if it weren't for the fact that I'm trying to slip through here undetected, I would put you all out of your misery, here and now."

As she finished this sentence, a shot suddenly whizzed past her head, just barely missing her as it shattered the glass, and destroyed the brain inside. She quickly turned and saw a group of Cybers standing in her path.

"You shall elude the great creator no longer." The lead Cyber spoke.

Krystal scoffed as she twirled her staff. "If your pet monster down there couldn't even take me down, what makes you think you can?"

"You can only overcome the odds against you for so long." The cyber responded flatly. "Eventually, you will err, and we shall be there to capitalize."

With that, the cyber fired a shot from its wrist, as Krystal jumped off to the side and swung her staff, smacking the head into the shot, and sending it flying back into the Cyber, making it spark as it stumbled.

Krystal then jumped into the air and came down with her staff hitting the metal floor, sending a shockwave through the ground, and making the other cybers stumble in the process, many of them falling over onto the slippery, icy floor.

She then ran and hopped onto the chest of one of the downed Cybers, blasting it right in the face with a fireball. She then pushed off on one foot, riding its lifeless body as it slid across the room, a Cyber coming out of one corner as it swung for her with its right fist, making her duck as she rode underneath him, swinging out with her staff, and tripping it as she took out its legs.

Krystal finally hopped off of the Cyber's body, and slid towards the exit door on her feet. She avoided more of their shots, as she held onto the handle of the door with her left arm, and held out her staff with her right, sending a strong ice blast over, which hit the feet of many of the Cybers, freezing them in place as she quickly opened the door and slipped through it, closing it behind her as she ran on.

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Topaz ran along the halls of the base, frantically looking through her mother's notes as she got the chance. Her eyes went wide as she realized what some of them were.

"These…these are the original plans for the 'Life Force' system!" She exclaimed to herself, ducking behind some crates as she flipped through the pages.

"Yeah, it's all right here, right down to the blueprints, and Xerxes has them all…it's as if he's planning on building a unit of his own…"

She gasped softly as it dawned on her. "Oh my god…I'll bet that's EXACTLY what he's doing!" She then put the notes away, and slowly looked up behind the crate, checking around, and leaving once she was sure that the coast was clear.

"Well, if that's what's really going on here, then I've got no time to lose!" She ran towards the doorway to another passage. "He's already destroyed two worlds with his twisted ideals and weapons! And I'll be damned if I'm going to let him do it to another one!"

Topaz quickly opened the door, and ran into the passage, trying to find her way to one of the other labs she had seen in the coordinates she had given to Krystal, before something dropped out from under her feet, making her fall.

The blonde vixen gasped and almost screamed as this happened, sliding down the hidden chute, obviously too close to Xerxes' area of firm control on the base. She was dumped out into a wide, circular room, the door to the chute closing up as she fell out.

She quickly got back onto her feet as she looked around, turning and observing the wide open room, which seemed almost like a big, metal arena.

The Image of Xerxes came up on a screen in the middle of the room.

"I'm afraid I can't let this little trek of yours go on, child." He looked and saw her mother's notes in her pocket. "Especially now that you've figured out some of my little plan."

Topaz growled as she held the notes up. "Where, Xerxes…" She spoke, insistently. "Where are you planning on launching this thing? What's the target?"

Xerxes scoffed. "Well, isn't it obvious? I plan on launching it at my only real threat, the heart of my opposition."

"Corneria?" Topaz's jaw dropped. "You're going to shoot this thing at Corneria?" She shook her head slowly. "You've lost it…you're nuts…you won't even get through the outer defense systems with that thing."

Xerxes laughed a bit. "I know that, child…I know it's impossible with my current supply of ships, which are being hunted to the ends of the galaxy…what do you think I stole all of the Star Wolf ships for?"

Topaz gasped as she thought this over. "Of course…they're harder to detect…"

Xerxes grinned and nodded. "That's right…and within the next few hours, I'm going to launch one of them, with the Life Force device inside of it. Corneria shall experience an epic rebirth, the aftershocks of which shall be felt through all of its worlds. My Cybers shall make it their new home world, and use it to slowly spread the gospel of Life 2.0 throughout the Lylat system."

Topaz spun her staff at her side. "What do you think Krystal and I are gonna do? Just sit here and let you take over the galaxy? We're not gonna let you do it, Xerxes!"

Xerxes chuckled. "You're not going to stop me, child, and neither is Krystal. It's all been arranged."

His image vanished from the screen as the lights came up in the large room. Topaz quickly turned and readied herself with her staff. She heard someone walking into the room, as looked over and saw Diamando entering with a group of Cybers. Her face was mostly repaired now, except for her cyber eye, which was still glowing from under the spot where her organic eye had been.

"Hello again." She smiled lightly, as she walked in with her metal staff at her side, and stared down Topaz.

"Well…" Topaz smiled a bit as she looked to her replacement on the Cybers' side. "If it isn't the pale imitation." She then pointed to Diamando's eye. "I see you failed in taking Krystal down as well…not so easy, now is it?" She grinned, remembering her past fights with Krystal.

"Snigger all you want…" Diamando sneered, as she readied her staff, the Cybers making sure Topaz didn't try to escape. "I know all about you, Topaz…your secrets…your weaknesses…your past, including the relationship with your mother, who had planned to betray Life 2.0 as well."

"Don't you DARE mention her, you chrome plated bitch!" Topaz growled again, twirling her staff. "And don't think you're gonna take me down either! You may know all about my past, but I can still determine my future…and right now, that future includes sending your metal ass to the scrap pile!"

"Enough of this nonsense!" Diamando exclaimed, as she fired an electric bolt from her staff, Topaz rolling out of the way as she countered with an ice blast, freezing Diamando's staff.

Diamando grunted and put down her staff, running towards Topaz as she put her staff down as well, getting into a fighting stance as Diamando jumped up and caught Topaz off guard with kick across the face, making her grunt and stumble off to the side, as Diamando followed it up by lunging in and punching her right in the stomach.

Topaz grunted again and quickly ducked, as Diamando swung with her other fist, sweeping her right leg across the ground towards the green vixen's feet, and making her jump up and avoid the move. As she landed, Topaz got onto her feet, and nailed her with a right crescent kick across the jaw.

Diamando stumbled backwards as Topaz lunged in with a few straight punches, which Diamando ducked and weaved under, again with precision, before grabbing her right wrist with her hand, and throwing her, head over heels as she moved over to where Topaz had been standing, the blonde vixen grunting as she fell over onto her back, hitting the metal floor hard.

Diamando then slipped behind her as she tried to get back up, and wrapped her left arm around her throat, choking her hard. Topaz coughed and gagged, sputtering as she felt the grip slowly increasing around her neck, Diamando showing off her great strength.

Topaz desperately tried to hit Diamando's arm a few times, but it was no use. Diamando grinned as she choked her opponent, and raised her right hand, making the long metal needle shoot out as she prepared to finish the job.

Diamando quickly jabbed the needle down towards Topaz, who suddenly reached up and grabbed her arm with her left hand, stopping her as she was still being choked, struggling with the cyber vixen.

Topaz felt the adrenaline rushing through her body as she let it feed her strength, pulling Diamando's wrist along as she tried to jab again, making the needle go through her own left arm instead.

The green vixen yelled out as her pain receptors felt this, allowing herself to lose her grip as Topaz quickly bent down and kicked up her flexible leg behind her, nailing Diamando right in the head as she broke free of the move, rolling over and picking up her staff.

Diamando's staff had sufficiently thawed at this point, as she used the magnetic device to make it fly into her hands, wiping the ice off as Topaz yelled and ran in, twirling her staff above her head before slashing it down towards Diamando's middle. Diamando quickly caught the swing in her own staff, and pinned the staff down with her left foot, moving over swiftly and kicking Topaz right in the belly with her right foot, before leaning in grabbing the back of her head, pulling it down and smashing it into her hard knee.

Topaz fell back, but quickly defended herself as Diamando quickly ran in and thrust the head of her staff at the blonde vixen repeatedly. Topaz saw her chance, and grabbed Diamando's staff with her right arm, pulling her over swiftly as she jumped up, kicking her right in the back of the head as she passed by, and landing as she shot off a fireball.

Diamando ducked and rolled off to the right as the fireball passed her, growling and extracting her metal needle on her hand once more, as she tossed her staff to her left hand. She ran in and thrust the needle at Topaz, who quickly leaned out of the way, ducking and weaving as Diamando thrust and thrust fiercely with her hand, trying over and over to impale some part of Topaz on the needle.

Topaz grabbed Diamando by the wrist as she made a final thrust, attempting the same flip maneuver as she moved off to the side. Diamando landed on her feet, but Topaz soon followed it up with a hard roundhouse kick from her left leg, smacking and sending the Cyber vixen flying. She twirled a bit in the air, landing on her belly and right elbow, the force making the needle go into her left shoulder.

Diamando yelped and yelled out in pain as this happened, allowing Topaz to escape as she let the Cyber guards have it with a leap, followed by a slam into the ground from her staff, making them all stumble as she jumped, ran over their shoulders, and went out the door.

The green vixen finally got the needle out of her shoulder as she got back up, growling as Topaz left the area.

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Out in space, Fang, Falco, and the others, were still fighting off the other Cybers in their arwings. They were faring well against the regular Cyber fighters, but the two stolen Star Wolf ships were giving them major headaches. And the latest victim of their vicious pursuit of the arwings was Fulton.

"One of them's on my tail!" He exclaimed as he struggled with his controls. "It's got a lock!"

"Hang on, Fulton!" Fang yelled as he spiraled and blew up another Cyber fighter. "I'll be right there!"

Things didn't look good for the young wolf, as he turned and dove everywhere he could, almost colliding with a few Cyber fighters, only to have the wolfen craft still hot on his rear.

Then suddenly, something came out from the other direction, was yet another arwing.

"If I can't have my ship, no one can!" A familiar voice called out, as the arwing rushed in and fired right at the wolfen craft's weak spots, making it blow up before it could fire at fulton.

"Panther!" Falco exclaimed as he spotted this. "What the hell are you doing out of your cage?"

"Surprise, Falco." Peppy's face came up on the communicator. "I heard the poor guy going on and on about how his two allies were killed by these guys, and how he'd give anything to take just one shot at them for revenge…well, I couldn't just let such energy and determination go to waste, now could I?"

Fang was flabbergasted. "But, what if he tries to fly away on us?"

Peppy held up a remote. "He won't…I planted this remote explosive device on his arwing. He tries to escape, and he's dead."

"You drive a hard bargain, Peppy…" Panther spoke up. "But I appreciate you giving me this chance." He then addressed the others. "So how about we go give it to these walking garbage bins, huh?"

The others looked to each other, before slowly nodding in agreement, and letting their new comrade join in the fight.

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Xerxes looked on at a monitor, as Krystal was walking down another hallway, stopping to check on her coordinates again. He then turned to Ares, who was standing in the room.

"Diamando has done her best to get rid of both this pest, and the other who happens to be my daughter, but they both proven to be a bit too crafty for her." He lowered his gaze, expectantly. "Do you think you're up to the challenge?"

Ares nodded slowly. "They shall not outrun your grasp for much longer, sir…I'll see to it personally."

Xerxes smiled and nodded as Ares held up his right arm, making his incinerator flare up on his wrist as he grinned to himself…


	7. Reunion

Krystal looked all around the hallway, seeing the small camera nearby, promptly taking out her staff and shooting it down with a fireball. There weren't many cameras around, luckily, as Xerxes basically rushed the expansion of the base, not figuring on having too many unwanted guests in the middle of this dead planet anyway.

She dropped down onto her hands and knees, spotting a ventilation shaft, and crawling into it, just as she saw a group of Cybers tromping down the hall, scanning the area as best they could with their eyes.

"Any sign of the intruder?" One cyber asked.

"Negative…I see no traces." Another one answered.

"Keep searching…" The leader spoke again. "According to our creator, she was seen somewhere inside of this sector."

Krystal listened to this as they finally walked off. She saw little point in staying in this area, as she crawled further down into the shaft. She found a roomy enough spot, and quickly extracted her coordinates as she sat on her knees, slowly figuring out where she was, and how she could get to the lab where Fox was being held.

She crawled further on down, before she came to a juncture in the shaft, seeing a passage in front of her that went up and down, steel ladders attached to the side.

The blue vixen secured her coordinates in her outfit, as she slowly reached out to the ladder, careful not to fall down into the shaft, as she pulled herself over with her arms, quickly securing her feet to the ladder below. She looked up to the exit, making sure no one was spying on her from above, as she slowly made her way upward…

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"Yeaaaaahhhh!" Slippy yelled, blasting through a group of Cyber fighters, bringing two of them down as Fulton dove down and took out another fighter from behind.

"We've got these guys on the run!" The young wolf exclaimed with a big smile, pointing to the other Cyber fighters fleeing the scene.

"That's because they know who they're screwing with now!" Panther grinned as he flew expertly up and over a pursuing Cyber fighter, executing a great looping maneuver as he ended up right over the top of the fighter, firing away and blowing it to pieces.

The former Star Wolf member then looked behind him, seeing the remaining wolfen craft on his tail.

"Ohhhhh…you want to chase me too, now, do you?" he grinned as he held onto his controls. "Well, I'm always up to the challenge from such a quality fighter craft."

Before he could make his first move, however, an explosion suddenly came from behind the craft, the flames engulfing it as it blew up and scattered into pieces across space. Panther blinked, wondering what happened, as Fang and Falco's ships came out from behind, having just taken the craft down together.

"No need for any cat and mouse crap, Panther…" Fang grinned. "We've got it for you."

Panther's jaw dropped. "Uhhhh…thanks…"

Falco nodded gently. "So what do you say, Fang? They're retreating. Should we follow them?"

Fang nodded. "Hell yes, we follow them! That was my idea all along, to get back to Necross!"

"Let's go, then!" Fulton nodded quickly, as he flew off with Slippy. He wasn't saying it out loud, but he counted on seeing that interesting vixen he had said hello to on the Great Fox again.

Falco and Fang followed along as Panther pulled up next to them.

"Guys…" He spoke. "I have to say, I really appreciate you saving me from that fighter…I mean, Wolf and Leon, they would have never covered my ass like that. So I'm really grateful."

"No problem, Panther…" Falco spoke. "But don't take this as the start of a partnership, or anything."

Panther laughed a bit, as Fang smiled and spoke up. "Now now, go easy on him, Falco. The guy just lost his only comrades in the galaxy, and I for one wouldn't want to keep his future options limited."

"Whatever…" Falco rolled his eyes a bit. "Lets just keep our focus on the task at hand right now…"

Fang nodded with Panther as the group flew towards Necross, in pursuit of the Cyber fighters.

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Krystal slowly pulled her way up the ladder in the claustrophobic chute, slowly moving hand over hand, before she finally reached the top, going into what looked like a parts storage room, metal boxes and crates everywhere, as she sat on the edge of the chute.

She moved her pants down on her outfit just a little, finally getting some time to examine the wound on her leg, courtesy of Diamando's needle. It only stung at the moment, as she pulled a tiny first-aid kit from her pocket, gritting her teeth a bit as she cleaned it with a little vial of antiseptic, and covered it with some bandaging. It would probably require a little medical attention, but for now, it was taken care of.

The blue vixen slowly walked along the storage room, seeing the spare parts of Cybers hanging out of a few of the boxes, heads, arms, legs, and even some spare circuits here and there, all staring at her as she got a little uneasy, getting a little paranoid as she almost thought that one of them would start talking to her right there.

She found no comfort in the next room either, as she pulled the handle and opened the door. Inside of the room, there were rows of unused Cybers, all of them without a brain inside, standing against the walls, unmoving.

Krystal walked, slowly and uneasily, through the corridors of Cybers, before something else caught her eye…some of them looked different from the others.

She walked up for a closer look, and saw several metal skeletons up against the wall, in glass tubes. They were all advanced prototype Cybers, just like Diamando was.

"I don't get this…" Krystal spoke to herself. "If he has more than one of these improved types of Cybers, then why doesn't he use them?"

"Because they need my designed skin to function." A voice suddenly called out to her.

Krystal turned and scowled, seeing Xerxes as he appeared on the screen in the room, taking out her staff and getting into a stance, just in case he tried to activate something.

"Unfortunately, I need samples of genetic material, cells harvested from living beings, in order to fully create these Cybers…and I just couldn't get enough of them from my old body to create skin for more than one of them."

Krystal thought to herself as he mentioned this. "Wait a minute…is this why you brought Fox here?"

Xerxes grinned. "Well, I was mainly using him as bait, to catch you…you're the one I really want, but I suppose I could use Fox as well. He is a skilled pilot as well, after all."

"Use?…" Krystal was almost afraid to ask. "You mean…you want to harvest our…"

"Cells, yes." Xerxes smiled as he finished her sentence. "I mean Fox is a great fighter, and you're the one who thwarted my original plan. Who better for cell harvesting, than the cells of your biggest enemies?…They'd be perfect material, for use in creating skin for new, loyal Cybers."

Krystal breathed heavily as Xerxes showed her an image of Fox floating in the stasis tube. "Think of it this way…someday, you two would have probably wanted children anyway, from what I've known of your apparent relationship…these Cybers could be your children, ready to advance our new vision of life, on the reborn Corneria…Once all has gone according to plan with phase one." He then showed an image of the Life Force device, which Krystal remembered Topaz telling her about, being loaded onto the remaining wolfen craft.

"Oh my god…" Krystal almost moaned out as her jaw dropped. "You're sick…you're absolutely sick!" She stood with her staff at the ready. "I won't let you, damn it! I won't let you! Over my dead body!"

"Very well…" Xerxes sighed, as Krystal heard some heavy footsteps, the door opening again as Ares walked in slowly.

"Try not to damage too much of her…" Xerxes said to him. "I need whatever cells I can get, dead or alive."

"Affirmative…" Ares spoke, as he slowly raised his big arms.

Krystal shook her head slowly at the former General Scales. "Raised from the dead, and ending up as a goon in the process…I personally would have stayed dead."

"We'll see how that attitude fares once I've engaged you…" Ares shot back. "Last time we met, some Cornerian cream-puffs saved you…so who saves you this time?"

Krystal sneered. "When this is done, the only one who's gonna need saving, is you, goon!"

With that she jumped up into the air and slammed her staff into the metal floor, sending a shockwave as Ares steadied himself as best he could, extracting a small Gatling gun from his right palm and firing. Krystal gasped and ran from the bullets as best she could, ducking and countering with an ice blast from her staff, which hit and froze the weapon.

Ares grunted as he tried to fire helplessly, while Krystal let two other ice blasts fly, covering his feet in ice, making it hard for him to walk, as she jumped and somersaulted around him. He swung at her with his arms, missing each time, as she finally jumped in front of him, and shot a fireball right towards his face.

The metal Saurian put up his arm, the metal absorbing the blow as he growled, and suddenly grabbed Krystal, picking her up with his right arm, large fingers gripped around her from the waist down. He then slammed her into the wall a few times, making her grunt in pain, as he then simply chucked her aside like a rag doll.

Krystal was sliding right towards one of the motionless Cybers, holding out her staff with one arm as she kept herself from slamming fully into the wall. Ares then laughed a bit as he walked over, slamming his fist down into the ground as she rolled out of the way. He brought up his arm, and brought it down again, missing her once more as she rolled out of harm's way.

She then rolled right towards his front, making him swing for her again. As he missed, she slid in between his legs, thwacking him in the crotch with her staff. Ares groaned and put his hands over this area as Krystal rolled back up with a grin.

"Sorry…I just wanted to see how much Xerxes…tamed you." She giggled some.

Ares growled loudly as he heard this, his wrists opening up as the incinerators came back to life, as he roared out, Krystal standing with her staff at the ready as he lunged at her, snapping with his steel jaws. She jumped out of the way each time, finding a canister sitting on the ground nearby. She promptly tossed it at him as he snapped again, his metal teeth getting the canister stuck in them.

Krystal then decided to make her escape, before she made him any angrier, running towards the door. Ares noticed this, and spun, bringing his left arm around as he smacked her with a clothesline, sending her flying into a row of Cybers along the wall, as he turned and fired the laser on his tail, forcing her to jump and weave to avoid all of the blasts, before he finally freed the canister from his jaws.

Ares activated the third incinerator in his mouth now, as he turned to Krystal, rearing back. The blue vixen quickly looked for a shield, pushing a lifeless Cyber out from the wall, and hiding behind it as the Saurian came forward, and yelled as he blew a great flame from his mouth, firing the flames from his arms as well, all of them hitting her Cyber shield, as well as other Cybers around her, as they burst into flames.

Krystal quickly ran out, realizing how serious the situation was, as Ares laughed a bit and prepared for another fiery release, the blue vixen scrambling for another place to hide.

Before he could let the flames fly again, however, Topaz, who had been counting on meeting her ally again in this area, suddenly ran into the room behind him, her "Spirit Fury" already making her staff glow. She grunted loudly as she then hurled the glowing staff like a javelin with her right arm.

The staff slashed right through Ares' right shoulder as it passed him, slamming into the wall close by. It cut right into his fuel line, and before he could realize what had happened, he saw his entire right arm begin to catch fire.

"Eyyyaaaaahhhhhh!" He yelled in a combination of shock, fear, and pain, as Krystal grinned and stood up, putting her fingers on the head of her staff.

"Yup." She spoke as she concentrated. "I definitely would have stayed dead." The staff began to glow once more…"Spirit Fury!"

She spun her glowing staff as Topaz watched, while Ares ran around, frantically trying to put out the flames on his arm. Krystal then dove right towards Ares, her staff off to the left as she came down and swung it diagonally, ending up at her right as she landed, the staff slicing right into Ares' chest, as more fuel leaked out and caught fire on his body, Ares shrieking out in pain.

Krystal then held her staff to her left once more as she stood, getting a good grip, as she yelled "Blue flash!", using yet another move she learned from Topaz, as she swung the staff from her left to her right, creating a wave of blue energy that was aimed right towards Ares' head, slicing off a good portion of it in the process as he howled electronically in pain, the circuits underneath showing.

Krystal then twirled her staff to her side, getting into a stance as she yelled out ferociously, making the glow vanish from her staff. Ares then sputtered a bit as the energy overcame his body, his head suddenly exploding as the flames consumed his body, which was still standing.

The blue vixen gasped and looked on, as she picked up and tossed Topaz's staff to her. "He's gonna blow!" She warned her, as the two Cerinians fled the scene. Ares' arms moved just a bit, before his body soon succumbed to defeat, igniting and blowing up into an impressive fireball in the middle of the room, pieces of him scattering everywhere.

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"We're getting close to Necross, Peppy." Fang spoke as he fought off a few Cyber fighters who were trying to keep him and the others from following them. "Can you get fix on the location of Krystal or Topaz's arwings?"

"I'm way ahead of you, Fang." Peppy spoke as he gave him the coordinates, as well as giving them to Falco, Fulton, Slippy, and even Panther. "From what I can tell, there seems to be a secret entranceway, right along the planet's southwestern corner."

"Are you sure?" Fulton responded as he flew along with the group. "All of those other fighters seem to be heading northeast."

"It could be an attempt to mislead us…" Falco sneered a bit.

"Right…" Slippy spoke up. "Lead us to the wrong corner, and disappear, giving them time to regroup, and strike us again while we're standing around with our thumbs up our butts."

"Ok then…" Panther chimed in. "So we just ignore them, and head southwest, right?"

"That's right…" Fang nodded as he flew ahead of the others. "And be on your guard when we get there, all of you…Whatever happens at that entrance, you can damn well bet they're not gonna roll out the red carpet for us."

The others nodded as they followed.

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"So, how did you know I was going to be there?" Krystal asked Topaz as they ran along the passageway together.

"It was all part of my plan." Topaz smiled. "After I split up with you, I trusted you'd follow the coordinates I gave you, pretty much to a T…I had to improvise my part of the journey, but I knew at some point I'd end up right around here, since it's so close to our goal…"

"You mean…" Krystal looked to her with wide eyes as they ran up to the end of the corridor.

"Yup…" Topaz answered. "Should be just behind this door…"

She pulled the handle, as the door slowly opened. Sure enough, there was Fox, floating in the stasis tube, with his arms pointed outwards slightly, his head pointed upward as his eyes remained closed.

Krystal quickly ran up to the glass and stroked it.

"Fox…Fox I'm here…" She spoke softly.

"And so am I…" another voice suddenly called out from the shadows.

Krystal and Topaz immediately turned and stayed next to each other, as Diamando slowly revealed herself, her staff casually at her side, her mechanical eye still glowing from where Krystal had wounded her.

"You really didn't think I was going to give up on you two so easily, did you?" Diamando smirked.

Topaz smiled slightly as she nodded a bit. "For a brief moment…we did, actually."

Diamando's smile slowly faded as she got into a fighting stance with her staff, the floating figure of Fox McCloud behind Krystal and Topaz, as they got into their stances as well, preparing to face down the cybernetic Cerinian for what they hoped would be the last time…


	8. All Is Repaired

Fang led the charge as he flew towards the southwest section of Necross, he and the others ignoring the Cyber fighters as they all tried to lead the group northeast instead. He looked at his scanners, and then to his communicator.

"Keep your eyes open, guys…" He said, "According to Peppy's coordinates, we're almost sitting on top of where Krystal and Topaz went in."

Falco flew along, as he saw one of the arwings suddenly turn away from the group.

"Panther…" Falco furrowed his brow. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Shhhh…" Panther put a finger to his mouth. "I've been on the run from you all for a while now…if there's anyone here who knows how to find a hiding place, it's me…now please, let me concentrate…"

Fang nodded over to Falco, letting him know he should leave Panther alone, as the former Star Wolf fighter flew slowly past the others, getting closer to the rocky surface of Necross.

"If I were him, I wouldn't be flying so close to the ground." Fulton spoke up.

"Well…you're not him, are you?" Falco grinned a bit as he looked on, wondering if Panther could really survive such a bold move.

Panther eyed every part of the planet's surface carefully, before two guns suddenly fired out from behind a huge boulder in the distance.

"Ah-ha!" Panther yelled, as he swerved and avoided the shots, firing his guns off and blasting a huge hole in the boulder, revealing the entrance to the base. "The key to revealing your enemy's location is always to provoke them into showing themselves."

Fang watched Panther fly right into the entrance, before looking over to Falco. "He's good…"

Falco shook his head. "Let's just hope he's not good at getting us all killed."

He then reluctantly went off with Fang and the others, as they all flew into the special entrance that Panther had just created for them.

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Diamando leapt into the air with her staff pointed out, shooting the flamethrower as Topaz and Krystal rolled aside, Topaz swinging for Diamando's head with her staff, while Krystal swung for her legs.

The cyber vixen landed and jumped out of the way of Krystal's staff, sending her to the ground with a sidekick, before knocking Topaz's staff away with her own, and performing an impressive standing backflip, bringing her feet up to Topaz's head from underneath, and smacking her hard under the chin.

Topaz yelled out in pain as she gripped her head, as Krystal got right back up and ran for Diamando, swinging for her belly, as the green vixen simply dropped her own staff, and caught a hold of the head. She jumped into the air while still holding it, Krystal gripping onto the other end as Diamando flipped over to the other side, and used her momentum to flip Krystal using her staff, letting go, as Krystal flew over and hit a nearby wall hard, grunting as she landed on her stomach on the ground.

Diamando turned to see Topaz suddenly come in and try to hit her with a spinning roundhouse kick, catching her foot in her arms. Topaz hopped a bit on her other leg as Diamando tried to swing for her with her right fist. Topaz ducked her head, and suddenly went down, bringing up her other foot and smacking Diamando across the temple as she fell and rolled back, getting up and chasing her.

Topaz ran after Diamando as she ran near the same wall where Krystal was recovering. Before Krystal could realize what was going on, Topaz ran in and swung for Diamando as they were right up to the wall, only to have Diamando quickly leap to the wall with one foot, and spring off it with her other foot, performing a backflip right over Topaz's head, and landing right behind her.

Krystal had no time to warn Topaz as she turned, while Diamando brought up her right leg, nailing the blonde vixen with a hard front kick to the chest, making her staff return to her hand afterward. Topaz fell back as Krystal caught her, and tried to catch Diamando in an ice blast. Diamando activated the flamethrower on her staff, and twirled it, the flames easily melting the ice, as she tried to let the two have it with a well-placed flame shot.

The two Cerinians rolled out of the way, before they jumped up together, and brought both of their staffs down, as they landed, creating a doubly powerful shockwave in the ground, as Diamando stumbled and fell, grabbing hold of a counter nearby, as Topaz ran in and jumped, smacking her in the face with a well-timed jump kick.

Diamando fell back, and tried to defend herself as Krystal yelled and leaped in with her staff at her side, swinging it for Diamando as she managed to catch it behind her staff, using it to pull the cyber vixen in as she spun and extended her left leg, kicking Diamando in the back of the head, making her stumble into the waiting arms of Topaz, as she grabbed Diamando's left arm, and flipped her over onto her back.

Diamando grunted, and responded by suddenly bringing up her right leg as she lay there, hitting Topaz right in the forehead, and rolling out of the way as Krystal tried to let her have it with a fireball from her staff. The cyber vixen held out her staff, and shot out another bolt of electricity.

Krystal had no time to jump out of the way, holding out her staff as she felt the current travel into the weapon, and through parts of her body, making her shake violently

"Krystal!" Topaz yelled, as she ran up and spun her staff above her head, bringing it down off to her side as she smacked the head into Diamando's face, making her fall back and stop the attack.

Krystal's staff had taken much of the punishment from the attack, the head absorbing the energy, so it didn't kill her. She still was taken aback by the power, falling over onto her side and grunting, smoke coming off her body, as Topaz yelled and swung repeatedly for parts of Diamando's head and shoulders, the cyber vixen bringing up her staff and blocking each attack. She then tried to hit Topaz with a front kick, only to have the blonde vixen grab a hold of her foot with her left hand, using her right to swing her staff right for her face. Before it could reach her though, Diamando suddenly smacked Topaz with a vicious right hook, using her other foot to spring off her shoulders, and maneuver her feet around her head from behind, flipping over in a sommersault and taking Topaz down with her, as she hit the ground hard.

Diamando then put down her staff, and went over to Topaz's slightly stunned body, and, held her head up in her left hand. "Playtime's over, bitch…" The cyber vixen growled, as she held up her right hand, the long, metal needle shooting up from it, still stained with blood from when she wounded Krystal.

Krystal looked over and saw this, groggily, as she felt her mind flash back to many different events that had happened to her recently…meeting Topaz and befriending her, treating each other as sisters, as well as her recent meetings with Fox, their relationship seeming to improve with each one. She began to breathe heavily as she realized how much possibility was still left in her life, as well as that of Topaz, and that it was now all going to be robbed of them from this metal monster before them. She couldn't let that happen…

She sat up, and just before Diamando could drive the needle through Topaz's heart, she shot off a fireball that flew over so quick, Diamando could only turn over and look, as it smashed her right in the face, making her head catch fire.

The Cyber vixen screamed as Topaz quickly got up and kicked her away, running over to Krystal. The Two cerinians nodded to each other slowly, as they both put their fingers on the edge of their staffs.

"Noooooo!" Xerxes yelled from the screen in the room, having been monitoring the whole fight, as Diamando ran around wildly, fumbling for her staff, as the two vixens yelled out "Spirit Fury!" Making their staffs glow to life at the same time.

Topaz ran in just as Diamando was making a grab for her staff with her left arm, bringing her glowing staff down vertically as it quickly sliced off the arm. Diamando howled out again as her pain receptors went off like crazy, sparks shooting from the spot where her arm used to be, as Krystal ran in and lopped off the other arm with her glowing staff, making the cyber vixen cry out as the fire consumed her skin covered face, leaving her metal skull behind as wrenched back and forth, its jaw opening and closing.

The two vixens cancelled their attacks, as Krystal walked over and picked up the severed right arm, the metal needle still extracted as she walked up to Diamando's remains, leaning back against a wall as she held her neck in place with her left hand.

"This is for Fox…" She spoke, before bringing the hand up, and impaling Diamando through her metal forehead with the needle. Sparks flew, as the metal skull's jaw dropped, before a metallic whine echoed through her body, the glow in her eyes fading into nothing.

"Now you've done it…" Xerxes growled, looking on from his monitor. "Now you've done it!" Doors opened from all corners, as Cybers all began to march into the room. The two vixens, both weakened from the fight, prepared to defend themselves as best they could.

"I suppose I made the mistake of having too much faith in Diamando's abilities." Xerxes spoke as he scratched under his chin some. "Rest assured though, I shall not make such errors from here on."

The Cybers then held out their arms, and began to fire off their blasters, as Topaz quickly ducked and rolled, making them hit each other a few times as Krystal did the same, freezing the head of one of them with an ice blast, and letting another one have it as she got up and spun her staff, letting out another fireball.

Topaz spun as well as another cyber fired, deflecting the shot with the head of her staff, as it ricocheted right into the stasis tube where Fox was being held, shattering the glass.

Krystal gasped and looked over as this happened, the Cybers stopping and watching as their hostage spilled out onto the floor with the liquid of the tube, rolling onto his back as Krystal ran over and helped Fox up, sitting him up with her right hand as she rubbed his back.

"Fox!…Fox!…" she yelled, trying to bring him back to consciousness.

Topaz looked on as the Cybers stood, unsure of what to do now, as Fox coughed a bit and rubbed the thick liquid out of his eyes, very groggy as he slowly began to speak.

"W-where am I?" he slowly answered, looking up and seeing Krystal. "Is it 7:00 PM already?"

Krystal chuckled a bit and smiled. "Oh, Fox…" She hugged him softly, forgetting any animosity she had borne against him over the past since their breakup. "I'm so glad you're all right…"

"Touching…" Xerxes spoke as he stood in the monitor with his arms at his sides. "I'm sure that whatever's left of my old, naive self would be weeping in joy for you two at this moment. But, it is only for a moment after all…as you can see, all of you are outnumbered, and still trapped in a base controlled by me…So you are still going be a part of my grand plan, whether you like it or not."

Krystal frowned at Xerxes as she held Fox up, who was slowly remembering where he was, as his eyes went wide. Topaz used this moment, where the Cybers were all focused on Fox and Krystal, and jumped past them, kicking some of them aside, before sliding into a passageway nearby.

"We shall deal with her later!" Xerxes called out to his Cybers, before turning his attention back to Krystal. "It looks like I won't have to delete you for your cells after all, now that I have both you and your fox cornered…Take them to lab 118y, and put them both in stasis down there!"

"Affirmative…" The Cyber in front nodded, before walking over and reaching for Krystal.

But before he could get her, a shot came out from nowhere, and slammed right into its head, making it stumble and fall off to the side. All heads turned to see Fang, Fulton, and Panther standing in the doorway.

"Touch her, and you're aluminum siding!" Fang shouted, having been the one who had fired.

The Cybers then turned and began firing at the three fighters; Falco and Slippy back at the hangars, defending the ships from other Cybers. Fang ran in and ducked to avoid more shots, springing up and smashing his metal knee into the chest of a Cyber, before blasting it right in the face.

Fulton stood his ground, as he fired at Cybers here and there, providing backup for Panther as he jumped up and kicked one Cyber out of his way, spinning and firing his gun at two others, taking them down.

"Panther!" Krystal shouted as she looked on, and twirled her staff, knocking away another Cyber. "Who let you out of your cage?"

"Easy now, love…" Panther grinned as he fought. "I'm on your side now…"

"He is, Krystal, believe it!" Fang nodded, as he ducked and fired away with his gun, Fulton still firing and running to the different corners of the room, trying to give himself some distance, as even Fox now, who was slowly waking up, got up and fought as best he could, without his weapons.

But there were just two many Cybers in the room, as Panther was overpowered and thrown into the center of the room by two Cybers, near Krystal and Fox, as Fulton was pushed into the same area, Fang fighting on furiously, before one Cyber let out a blast from his wrist, as it smashed into Fang's gun, rendering it useless, as he slowly backed into the center.

"I have had it up to here with all of this resistance…" Xerxes growled as he looked on to the surrounded group of heroes. "Despite all of your best efforts, Corneria WILL be reborn as a Cyber world, and you shall all be here to witness it, to see your home go up in flames, and be no more. You are all great fighters, but you all still fail to realize the force and conviction behind Life 2.0…well, no longer…Prepare to watch yourselves all become extinct!" He motioned to the Life Force device, which was now being loaded into the surviving wolfen craft.

But before Krystal, Fox, or anyone else could think of a way to get past all of these Cybers, the door suddenly opened, revealing Topaz behind it, holding her necklace.

"Father!" She yelled out, as Krystal's jaw dropped. Topaz had just called Xerxes the very same thing that she had once pledged to never call him again, after they had left Mondas.

"Father, stop this madness now!" She yelled, holding her necklace plainly in view, as the Cybers turned, ready to fire at her.

"Wait!" Xerxes spoke to them, getting a good look at what she was holding. "That object…something is..familiar about it…"

"It should be, father…" Topaz spoke softly. "I was on my way to find where your brain was being kept, before I looked at this necklace for a moment…it reminded me…of a time when you were very different, father…when you were the person who gave me this present…"

She looked to her necklace, and clicked it open, the lovely tune beginning to play on it, as the photo of Xerxes and Rose, her mother, came into view, the two of them holding hands together in the background of a beautiful sunset on Cerinia.

"That song…" Xerxes' eyes went wide, as he looked to the photo as well, admiring his late wife standing next to him. "…She used to sing it to you when you were just a baby…"

Topaz nodded gently. "And you remembered it, note for note, and programmed it into this necklace, when you gave it to me for my birthday…" she looked at him with emotional, tender eyes. "I remember you back then father…so full of life…full of love…and compassion…before you got lost in your work, your disease… before you turned into the monster I've known for so long, whose disregarded all other life for his vision, even the life of his own wife and daughter…before you became so wrapped up in defeating death and decay, that you forgot what living life actually felt like… …"

Tears began to well up in her eyes as she looked down, the others simply watching. "I wish I could see the father I used to know again, from all those years ago…even if it was for just a moment…"

Xerxes examined the photo a little more, getting lost in the moment…He felt it then…the pain, the guilt, the sorrow he had been burying deep inside of him, which he had almost completely forgotten, but the photo, and the sound of the song had now forced him to remember.

"Rose…" He spoke to himself, before he slowly began to lower his head in shame. "What have I done?…"

Topaz looked up quickly, tears in her eyes as she realized that she had in fact reached the part of him that could still feel. "Daddy?…"

Xerxes looked on at Topaz, his showing their first sign of compassion in ages. "My child…" he looked to photo of him and her mother, before looking back at his daughter. "I'm so sorry…"

With that, Topaz quickly walked up, and leaned against the monitor, Xerxes looking on from behind the screen as he brought down a mechanical arm from the ceiling, gently stroking his daughter's back with it as she nuzzled up to the glass, tears running down her cheeks, as a single tear even welled up in Xerxes' right eye, clearly touched.

"Do not listen to her, creator!" A Cyber protested. "She is trying to deliberately bring your guard down!"

"You will be silent!" Xerxes yelled, as he sent out an energy wave from the room, shutting the Cyber down as it went limp.

"You will all be silent!" He yelled, emotionally, as he sent energy waves through the room, and throughout the base, each and every Cyber stopping what it was doing as he forced a base-wide shutdown. Fox, Krystal, Fang, Fulton, and Panther all looked around them as the Cybers that surrounded them went limp.

"What the hell is going on?" Falco asked, as he entered the room with Slippy moments later. "We were busy fighting in the hangars, and everything just shut down around us!"

Xerxes used his mechanical arm to lift Topaz's head back up, as he smiled lightly down to her.

"The Cybers will be of no trouble to you anymore, child…you've helped me at this moment, more than you'll ever know…" He then looked to another screen. "But…there is only one way in which I can atone for all that I have done in my life…"

Alarms suddenly began to blare in the base, as Xerxes motioned to another monitor, Topaz and the others looking over, and seeing something glowing and flashing inside of it. Xerxes had activated the Life Force device, right there on the base, making adjustments to its programming.

"What are you doing?" Topaz shouted, as her eyes were wide open.

"Leave this base…" Xerxes answered softly. "It's all going to end now…"

"No! Father, don't do this!" She shouted, frantically, as Fang, Panther, Falco, Fox, and Krystal all made a run for it, heading back to the ships, as Fulton stayed behind for a moment, walking up behind Topaz.

"I should have died a long time ago, Child…" Xerxes spoke gently. "Instead I robbed your mother of her life, and nearly robbed you of yours, all for my monstrous vision…it's time that I finally accept my fate."

"C'mon, Topaz…" Fulton spoke to her as he tapped her shoulder. "I've only just said hello to you…I don't want to say goodbye yet…"

"Go, child…" Xerxes motioned to the doorway. "Go, and live…"

Topaz nodded slowly. "I love you, father…" She spoke to him one last time, before finally running off with Fulton, joining with the rest of their group as they all got into their arwings, and blasted off, flying out of the entrance, and heading right for the Great Fox, which was now fairly close to the planet.

Xerxes looked around at his de-activated Cybers, the remains of Diamando, and then over to the other monitor as the Life Force device got ready to go off, watching on another monitor as the ships all flew off together and boarded the Great Fox.

"Rose…" Xerxes said to himself, as he closed his eyes. "Forgive me…"

With that, the device went off, creating a loud, spectacular explosion, one unlike anything heard or seen before, which echoed through the planet just as everyone had gotten out of their arwings, looking down at Necross in stunned silence.

The force of the explosion came up from underground, obliterating the base, and the Cybers inside of them, destroying them once and for all, as a bright energy wave slowly began to consume the planet.

Everyone watched from the window of the Great Fox, as the Life Force wave worked its magic, the planet no longer a lifeless mound of rocks and boulders, as streams of blue began to manifest themselves in the crevices, the heat from the huge energy wave dying down as great patches of green and brown began to appear with the blue, a stable atmosphere beginning to form over the planet as well.

Krystal gasped, as she ran right over to the window, the surface of the planet beginning to take a familiar shape. "I can't believe it! I can't believe he actually did that!"

Fox ran over to her side as the others watched. "What? What is it?"

"Cerinia!" Krystal exclaimed, as she pointed to the planet as it slowly began to finish its rebirth. "This place now looks exactly like Cerinia!"

Fox grinned and looked on as she stated this, putting his arm around Krystal. She smiled, and in that moment, remembered everything that Fox had done to make her happy in the past, and leaned over, kissing him lovingly, as he returned it.

"Hey! Hey!" Falco put his hand over Fang's eyes. "Not in the front of the kids!"

"Shut up!" Fang laughed, as he threw Falco's hand off.

Panther smiled to himself. "I never thought I'd say this, but it actually felt good to be doing something on behalf of the other side."

"It's the first step to a new life, Panther." Fang grinned as he brought over his canteen of Red Cactus over. "And I for one welcome you to it…How about a drink?"

"Sure…" Panther smiled as he took the canteen. "There isn't a drink out there today that can get the better of Panther Caros-" He took a sip, and promptly spit it back out from the strength of it. "My god…what do they put in this stuff?"

Fang laughed and drank his share, as Topaz stood near the window, looking at the reborn planet, and holding her necklace as it was open once more, looking over the picture of her parents as she heard the pretty tune play on.

"Father…" She spoke as she lowered her head, and gripped the necklace tightly in her hand. "Thank you…"

With that she turned, and walked over to the smiling Fulton, the two going off to chat for a while, as Krystal and Fox looked on fondly out the window to the planet, Peppy smiling to himself as he left the room, giving the two some space.

Stay tuned guys! There's a little more to come.


	9. Endings and Beginnings

Many months had passed now since the destruction of the Cybers, the death of Xerxes, and the subsequent rebirth of the planet formerly known as Necross.

The planet had now been re-named New Cerinia, and it slowly became a lovely refuge for many people through the universe looking for a home. Others from Corneria, and the surrounding worlds, quickly began to colonize the planet, implementing their technology, but always careful to not let it disturb the natural world, having learned from the madness of Xerxes.

Among the first of these colonists were, in fact, Fox and Krystal. Their relationship once broken, the events that had occurred in the Mondas system, and then on Necross, helped to repair it, and make it stronger than ever. So strong, that within weeks of making his new home on New Cerinia, Fox proposed marriage to Krystal, and she happily accepted it.

The wedding was naturally held on the new world, the first wedding ceremony ever performed there, as everyone the two had known from the past had shown up. Including Fang, who had now been accepted, as a member of team Starfox, and was there to back the union of his old leader, Krystal, and his new leader, Fox.

Krystal had relinquished her position as leader of "Blue Specter", the title now belonging to Topaz, who was nowhere close to being ready to settle down. She was there at the ceremony with her two new team members, Fulton, whom she slowly realized had a bit of a crush on her, and her other partner, of all people, Panther.

Panther had been excused from any prison time, in return for his assistance to the others on Necross, and was slowly being given a chance to work his way up the ladder in the Cornerian military.

It was a very happy time for everyone involved…and as the months passed, it was clear that things were only going to get happier…

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"Topaz, slow down!" Fulton exclaimed, following his new leader in his arwing, as best he could. "Think before you fly!"

"Slow down? Are you kidding me?" Topaz scoffed, as she zoomed in the direction of New Cerinia. "I've already missed…I don't how many moments with this, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna miss any more!"

"All right, all right!" Fulton nodded. "Just try not to crash into anything…I'm sure Krystal would want you there in one piece!"

Topaz nodded quickly, as she zipped into New Cerinia's atmosphere, nearly clipping two other ships coming from the opposite direction, Fulton apologizing to them as he followed quickly in her wake.

Within moments, Topaz had zipped down onto the base closest to her destination, impatiently following the directions of the fellow with the tracking lights, instructing her on which hangar to go into, as the sun shone through the beautiful blue sky, almost like that of a tropical paradise.

After she flew to her hangar, Fulton came along and politely went over to the hangar he was pointed towards, disembarking soon afterward, and looking for Topaz, not knowing she was walking up behind him.

"Come on! Come on!" She insistently spoke, pulling the wolf along by the arm, as he jumped a bit from the grab, and nodded quickly, following.

"Topaz…" He spoke, walking quickly with her. "I know how big a deal this is for you, but keep in mind, there ARE other people on this planet!"

"I know that…" She spoke as she walked with him, a determined look in her eyes. "But there's only two, at this moment, that I give a damn about. Now quit dragging your feet."

Fulton grunted a bit as he was pulled. "Well, quit moving yours so quickly!" He retorted.

But Topaz was not to be deterred, not on a day like this. She pushed along, keeping a firm grip on Fulton's wrist, as she walked through the seemingly endless hallways of the base, not letting anybody get in her way, determined to meet up with her "sister".

She had soon left the base, letting go of Fulton as she walked a bit more calmly, keeping her eyes wide open for the home that Krystal and Fox had established on this world, a neat collection of houses lining their row. The two "Blue Specter" members walked along this road, a few soldiers handing out pamphlets for the Cornerian military, as a few children played around in one of the planets clean and well-maintained lakes.

As soon as the two got to around the end of this row of houses, they saw a familiar face walk out of one house and wave to them.

"Fox!" Topaz smiled widely, as she and Fulton ran over to meet him, hugging him tightly as he went wide-eyed.

"How are we, brother in law?" She grinned to Fox.

"Stop calling me that." He blushed. "It's just 'Fox'."

"Oh, whatever." Topaz smiled widely, looking into the doorway. "How is she?"

Fox looked back into the passage and smiled. "Oh, she's doing just fine, considering."

"Can we…go in?" Fulton asked, smiling sheepishly, looking to Topaz. "She's just been bursting for this moment."

Fox nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think it's ok now…" he led the way. "Just remember to keep your voices down."

Topaz nodded slowly and followed Fox, Fulton letting her go in first as he followed behind her. The trio walked in slowly past the entranceway, Krystal having nicely decorated the house with mementos she had saved from her old home, past the wide living room, and into the bedroom.

Krystal smiled as her husband came back into the room, waving to her "sister" and her new partner, as she held a small figure, swaddled in blankets on the crook of her left arm. She smiled and turned a bit, displaying her newborn daughter for the first time, a little scarlet-red furred vixen, with her eyes closed.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh…" Topaz softly exclaimed, instantly falling in love with the child, as she uncharacteristically clasped her hands together below her chin. "She is so amazingly beautiful…just like her mother."

Krystal simply smiled at the compliment, as she watched Fulton look on with Fox, smiling, just happy to see his leader in a good mood again.

"Hello Topaz…" She spoke, softly, holding up her child a bit. "I'd like you to meet someone…this my daughter, Rose McCloud."

Topaz's jaw dropped. "Rose…You named her after my mother?" A tear welled in her eye, as Krystal nodded and gently handed her child over the blonde Vixen. "Here…she should get to know her aunt a little better."

Topaz nodded slowly as little Rose opened her eyes, just blinking a bit as Topaz smiled, the tear now running down her cheek as she gently stroked the child's muzzle. "Hello there, Rose…I hope you like that name…it's a very, very nice one…and I can't think of anyone better to carry it…I can only hope that you'll turn out to be as loving and wise as my mother was."

She sniffled a bit as she handed Rose back to her mother, Fulton walking up and patting her back some, as Fox walked over and sat next to his wife once more, cuddling with her a bit as they looked on at the new life they had created.

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Time had passed, and Topaz had left the home, to allow Krystal to feed her child, as she walked along the woods, admiring this new world, the world that her father had ended up giving up his life to create.

"You know, Father…" she spoke to the trees. "For days and nights now, I've been wondering whether this one good deed of yours was enough to atone for all of the betrayal and suffering you inflicted everywhere for so many years…but as I stood there, holding the form of that new child on this world you created, I can definitely say now, that you did a hell of a good thing for the universe, at the very end. And that one child, to me, is enough of a vindication."

She looked up to the beautiful sky, addressing her father's spirit. "I hope you and mother found each other out there, and are watching all of this now…"

"I'm sure they are, Topaz." A voice suddenly called out to her. She turned quickly, and saw Fulton come out from the shadows.

"Forgive my eavesdropping, but I couldn't help but hear you talking about your father…" He adjusted his jacket some. "I was interested, because I know how you feel…"

"Oh?…" Topaz responded, tilting her head some. Fulton had always seemed, to her, like the type who had a happy childhood, so it surprised her to hear him saying this.

Fulton nodded slowly. "Yeah…when I was younger, my father was just this big, conflicted, mess of a guy. My mother died after giving birth to me, you see…and he hated me for it. He never said it out loud, but I could tell…he was looking for something to blame for killing his wife, and I was it…He'd act okay sometimes, but others…"

He shook his head slowly. "He would get hammered on all kinds of nasty stuff, and he'd beat me. Even if I did something minor, like leave a window open or some crap like that, that meant a beating…one day, he beat me unconscious with a pipe, and told the doctor that I had just fallen."

Topaz looked on, shocked at this revelation, as Fulton sat next to her on a rock. "Well, the doctor didn't buy that story, and got a court order to have me moved into a foster home…he'd show up every once in a while to talk to me, but he was never too comfortable, and I never wanted him around…"

He sighed a bit and looked up. "Then I got the chance to enroll in the academy, to get off of Fortuna, and really make something of myself…I just didn't have the credits to get myself the necessary equipment, and neither did my foster family…then one day, my father came up to me, for the first time in what had been nearly two years…he took my hand, and he stuffed it with credits…I don't know where he got them, but they were more than enough to help me through life at the Academy…he then looked me right in the eyes, and he said, 'Don't be like me…Don't screw everything up, like I did'…He walked away after that, and I never saw him again." He looked down as he remembered one particular day. "The news report two days later, said that he had thrown himself in front of a passing cruiser…He died almost instantly."

Topaz shook her head slowly. "Fulton…I never would have known, looking at you, that you've had that tumultuous of a past…why didn't you ever tell me about this before…"

Fulton sighed and looked down. "It's not something I generally like to discuss…but I heard you talking about your father, and I remember wondering the same thing…is one extraordinarily good deed enough to make up for years of betrayal and abuse? I've never been able to come up with an answer for that"

Topaz nodded slowly. "Well, look at it this way…my father, and your father, may have done terrible things to us and others in the past…but before they left us, they both provided for our futures in a big way…and in the end, that's all you can really ask of a parent…" She looked back towards Fox and Krystal's house, the couple attending to the needs of their daughter as she spoke.

Fulton looked on with Topaz and nodded, before looking back at her. "Do you think you'd make a good mother?"

Topaz nodded as she clicked open her necklace, the tune playing as she looked at her mother in the picture. "I think so…I learned from the best, after all…" She gazed at Fulton. "What about you? Do you think you'd make a good father?"

"Well, I definitely know what NOT to do…" Fulton responded. "Plus, my foster parents were decent enough for me to see what a good family was like…so, yes."

Topaz nodded gently as she slipped off the rock, stepping towards Fulton. "Come…let's go for a stroll together. It's been a while since I've gotten to take in the beauty of this place."

Fulton nodded as he walked off slowly next to her, slowly walking down the trail. As they went off further and further into the distance, Topaz slowly reached over with her right hand, taking Fulton's left hand into it as she gripped it gently, the couple now walking off, hand in hand…

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Fighters and cruisers made way for the Great Fox, Peppy the only one on board right now, as the ship hovered over the landing pad on the base, and slowly came to a stop on top of the surface, its thrusters dying down.

General Pepper walked up to Peppy as he disembarked from the ship, the two saluting each other quickly.

"Is the cargo safe?" The General asked Peppy simply.

"It is, sir." Peppy nodded. "I just hope you and your people know what it is you've got your hands on."

"Relax, Peppy…" General Pepper answered. "We've got our finest scientific minds working on this…Though it will probably be some years before we can figure out how to properly utilize this technology."

Peppy nodded, and looked on, as two Cornerian soldiers wheeled out a box that was marked "Property of Corneria: TOP SECRET". Residing inside of the crate were the remains of the one Cyber that Wolf O'Donnell had shot down on Joppa, before his death…

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The world of New Cerinia spun slowly on its axis, all life on the planet going about its daily business, blissfully unaware of the object that was descending towards the atmosphere slowly.

The object was a sort of relic, a remnant of the Old Cerinia, that had somehow survived the planet's destruction, and was now being pulled to the new one by a mysterious force, a red gem of sorts shining in the middle of the granite, which had the images of nightmarish creatures carved into the front from all around, along with some very ancient writing, complete with one phrase carved into the front middle…

"Cajw colu vho Grongi" (Long live the Grongi)

The object soon fell through the atmosphere, and embedded itself into the ground, right in the middle of one forest, it's gem glowing, before the light went out, the slab going dormant once more, until the time was right…it hadn't quite been 500 years just yet.

THE END (for now…)


End file.
